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Magnus Bane traced the lines deeply carved into the stone, recognising the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. If he remembered Bathilda Bagshot correctly - and to be honest, that wasn’t a given - it had been carved here by Gellert Grindelwald in 1899. Fixed on the wall over a century later, it was another reminder to Magnus of the history of the place he found himself in, Durmstrang castle.Absent-mindedly he wondered why Grindelwald had carved it here, on the top floor of the castle, in a corridor that seemed mostly empty apart the bolted, black wooden door at the end.He sighed, scruffing a corner of his new black boots against the stone wall. He knew Professor McGonagall had gone to a lot of effort to get him into Durmstrang, and that the Wizengamot had been extremely lenient in scratching it from his record. Having turned 17 earlier that year, he’d been tried as an adult, and could have faced real time in Azkaban.Still, that didn’t stop him missing Hogwarts.He fingered the bright scarlet woollen robes his new guardians had placed him in, smiling a little at the bright colour, and imagining what his old potions partner would say at him in Gryffindor colours.Raphael... he’d miss him if no-one else. Perhaps Slytherin would fare better with a prefect who actually cared.Magnus’ train of thought was interrupted by expansive system of bolts on the door, which began clunking as they were unlocked from the inside. After what seemed like an unnecessary amount of time, they came to a rest and the door was flung open by a middle-aged witch with wild red hair.What she lacked in stature, she more than made up for in style, with spikey-heeled black boots, buckled up to the top of her calves, and a thick fur robe which augmented her compact frame strung over one shoulder by a leather strap.Still, despite the almost impossible height of her boots (Magnus was pretty sure they’d had at least a stability charm placed on them), she barely reached his height.As she turned around to catch sight of Magnus, her dark lips, stark against her pale skin, broadened into a surprisingly warm smile.“Magnus Bane, I presume?” she asked, in flawless, unaccented English. Magnus nodded, and she stretched out a pale hand, nails painted to match her lips.“Nadezhda Vulchanova, headmistress of the Durmstrang Institute. Minerva’s told me so much about you; please, do come in.” She wheeled around abruptly, allowing Magnus to follow her into an open, wooden-panelled room, which was dominated by a large desk.Unlike Professor McGonagall’s desk, which seemed to have about six different filing systems, Vulchanova’s desk was piled with scrolls of parchment, which, as she waved her wand, flew to various shelves on the right-hand wall.Magnus scanned the room, noticing a large portrait of an older, red-haired witch behind the desk, whose dark lips were pursed in a familiar way as she eyed him. As his eyes moved across, he saw the entire wall to her right was covered by a vast window which overlooked an icy lake.Down by the shore line he could make out the sails of a large ship, whose white sails bore the scarlet double headed eagle of Durmstrang’s crest.This was the first time Magnus had caught sight of Durmstrang’s surroundings since the portkey he’d grabbed hold of in London had brought him here, and he had to admit they had a raw beauty to them.Vulchanova smiled as she caught his gaze.“Beautiful, isn’t it? My ancestor Nerida certainly picked the right spot for the Institute.” She waved a hand behind her, and Magnus saw that the witch in the portrait had moved, looking out over the lake with an almost wistful look.Vulchanova gestured to the wooden chair in front of her desk, and Magnus took a seat, watching with some trepidation as Vulchanova conjured up two steaming mugs of liquid. She waved her wand at door behind him and the bolts clunked their way back across.He sniffed the mug he was handed suspiciously, finding to his surprise that it was distinctly alcoholic.“Mulled wine from the kitchens,” Vulchanova smiled motioning him to take a sip. “I serve it often to help with the cold, not that it does much.”Her eyes dipped towards Magnus’ fingernails, which, despite now being wrapped around the steaming mug, remained a stubborn blue. She aimed her wand behind her, and, with a conspiratorial wink, lit a fire in a small alcove beneath the portrait.“Fires in the Institute are usually scarce, but being headmistress has some perks.”Magnus gave her a small smile, before noticing for the first time that one of the parchment scrolls had remained on the desk. Vulchanova smoothed it out, and Magnus recognised the elegant loops of Professor McGonagall’s handwriting.Vulchanova’s eyes quickly scanned the letter, her lips returning once more to their pursed state, and her dark eyebrows furrowing as she read further and further down.Magnus’ stomach sunk. Whatever McGonagall had written, he doubted it was particularly kind.He’d disappointed her well and truly by getting expelled from Hogwarts. She’d put so much faith in him - visiting him in the orphanage in Madrid, and letting him stay in Hogwarts over the holidays - and he'd thrown it back in her face.Lowering his eyes into his mug, he missed Vulchanova’s expression as she read the final paragraph of McGonagall’s letter. She set the letter aside and her expression returned to the determined set it had been before.“So, welcome to the Institute, Magnus. You may know us back in the U.K. as ‘Durmstrang’, but since I took over from Igor Karkaroff, and the headship returned to the Vulchanov family, we’ve been restoring our international image. I find ‘the Institute’ fits us better now we longer teach the old Germanic curriculum - Professor Weasley's helped a lot in that regard.”
Magnus barely resisted rolling his eyes at the mention of his new guardian, who had scarcely stopped speaking about his roles with the Ministry of Magic and the Combined Legislative Assembly of Volkhvs of Europe, or the CLAVE.“However,” Vulchanova continued, her eyes narrowing for a moment, “do not think for a moment that our spotted history will allow for a lenient approach to your recent transgressions.”Magnus raised his chin, his kohl-lined eyes meeting her gaze with quiet defiance.Vulchanova did not waver, and he could have sworn her hair grew even larger as it was illuminated by the flickering fire behind her.“If I hear reports of you selling restricted substances – Alihotsy leaves, Firewhiskey, Mandrake leaves, anything – I will be forced to expel you from the Institute, and you can say goodbye to any chance of finishing your NEWTs.”Magnus glowered, but Vulchanova continued.“That goes double fold for any reports of there being a student Animagus.” Magnus’ eyes flashed briefly, giving away his surprise.“They don’t know?” he asked, all traces of obstinance vanished.Vulchanova’s eyes softened once more.“No, and I don’t intend it to be public knowledge. I realise you’re registered with the Ministry following your trial, but I’d appreciate it if you could refrain from using your Animagus form within the Institute, and certainly not in front of any other students.”Magnus nodded silently, his eyes clouding over once more as he recalled the events of his final day at Hogwarts.“Of course, Professor Weasley and Professor MacMillan are aware of your skill, but they can be relied upon to keep it to themselves,” Vulchanova continued.Magnus remembered the blonde witch who had accompanied them from London, who had introduced herself as Audrey MacMillan. Percy had been almost unable to contain himself around her, and Magnus suspected a great deal of his stories about the CLAVE were for her benefit rather than his.Of course they both knew he was an animagus, he groaned internally – he doubted anyone with a connection to Hogwarts could have missed hearing about the calamitous House Feast, Camille’s impromptu toast, and Magnus’ hasty exit on all fours.Which meant they probably knew what had been said in that speech, including some things he’d really rather keep hidden.“They won’t gossip, Magnus,” Vulchanova said softly, and Magnus realised his face had been betraying his inner turmoil.“No one at the institute is aware of your father’s name, and I intend to keep it that way,” she said firmly, and Magnus was unable to hide the relief that crossed his face.“Not that it wouldn’t have made your acceptance a bit easier if they had,” Vulchanova added with a wry smile, “there are certain individuals among our governors who still hold your father in good respect.”Magnus swallowed the lump in his throat as his face adopted the practiced impassivity he always showed when hearing about his father’s history.Vulchanova’s face retained more of her warmth this time, as she finished the mug of wine she was holding, rising to her feet with a graceful swish of her long, fur robe.“Enough of promises and threats,” she smiled, waving her wand to the door, “let me show you around before second period.”She handed him a small brown folder, the first page which Magnus could make out as his timetable, and strode toward the door.As she threw it open once more, which Magnus now realised was probably due to its sheer weight rather than any particular exuberance, he finished the remainder of his wine and turned to follow.He couldn’t shake the longing for Hogwarts, but if Nadezhda Vulchanova was anything to go by, Durmstrang, or rather ‘The Institute’, was going to be far from what he’d expected.Not that Magnus had necessarily known what to expect after being dragged to a different continent by portkey to finish his NEWTs at the only school in the wizarding world who was willing to accept him.“Come along,” Vulchanova interrupted his thoughts, flashing a bright smile as she waited for him at the doorway, “if we’re quick, you can catch the end of the fifth-form Martial Magic class – I was hoping you might consider taking an additional OWL this year.”Magnus raised an eyebrow at that, and he moved across the room faster than his usual feigned nonchalance would allow.It was definitely not what he expected, but an OWL in Martial Magic sounded undeniably badass.
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Magnus followed Vulchanova down the spiral staircase, struggling to keep up with her despite her lethal footwear.“Professor McGonagall informs me you’d been studying Ancient Runes, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Potions, and Transfiguration. You’ll be glad to know you can carry on with the same NEWTs here, our new curriculum is fairly similar to Hogwarts’.”“You teach Defence Against the Dark Arts?” Magnus asked, a little taken aback.He regretted his question immediately as Vulchanova came to an abrupt halt and turned to face him.“The Dark Arts are no longer taught at the Institute, Bane, and our Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum has had considerable rehaul by Professor MacMillan. Perhaps you would be so kind as to not believe everything the Daily Prophet reports, and begin the school year with an open mind.”Magnus stuttered out some kind of agreement and Vulchanova whipped around once more, pointing out Professor MacMillan’s classroom on their left before they descended the huge staircase to the entrance hall. Her directions to Magnus’ various classrooms on the first floor had been lightning fast, and he had barely had time to register them, but all the same he nodded when Vulchanova asked him if the tour was clear.At the very least, asking for directions would be a way to meet people, and he was keen to find out what this Martial Magic class might look like.“Shall we?” Vulchanova flashed a brilliant smile at him, gesturing towards an archway which led to the next stop on the tour. Magnus breathed an inward sigh of relief that his impertenance hadn’t seemed to harm her good mood.The Martial Magic classroom was somewhat less of a room than Magnus was expecting. Through the archway, there was a vast courtyard surrounded by the four walls of the castle. Apart from narrow walk ways on all four sides, marked off with silvery trees, the entire space was devoted to what Vulchanova called the training grounds. Although racks of weapons covered two of the far sides, the crowd of students were armed only with wands as they gathered round what Magnus assumed was the professor.Professor Starkweather, as his timetable informed him he was called, certainly didn’t look like any of the professors at Hogwarts.His sleeveless tunic laid bare his arms, which were covered in scars and runic tattoos. Somehow he didn't look cold, though the leather binding that covered most of his forearms couldn't have been much help.Maybe he had stronger mulled wine.As Vulchanova ushered him closer Magnus realised they’d happened upon a demonstration of sorts.“Now since this the second year of your OWL classes, we’ll be starting magical close combat, and you’ll all need to learn how to bind your wands.”Starkweather extended his right arm towards the crowd, and Magnus realised that the leather binding served another purpose other than insulation. Starkweather’s wand was partially concealed beneath the binding, emerging to run across his palm and finishing with the tip of his index finger. When his arm was rotated, it was almost completely hidden.“We bind our wands during martial magic for two main purposes. Firstly, it prevents you losing your wand to a simple expelliarmus, and secondly, it allows for greater bodily movement, and close quarters duelling. It takes a fair bit of practice to bind as I’ve done here, so today we’ll be looking at a simpler method.”A tall pale figure stepped out from the shadows of the trees behind Starkweather, and Magnus eyed him with appreciation. The stranger was over six foot of lean muscle, and Magnus smirked as he saw a number of the girls visibly melt as he scanned the crowd.He couldn't blame them - he always did have a soft spot for blue eyes and black hair.As the boy demonstrated a rudimentary binding system, Magnus was transfixed by his hands. Long, pale fingers expertly wrapped first scarlet fabric, and then deep brown leather around his wand, securing it to his wand hand. Hodge talked over every step, while the boy himself remained remarkably taciturn.Looking around, Magnus noticed all the watching students held, alongside their wands, a strip of fabric and some length of leather in varying colours. He’d have to work out where he could get some of his own.
As the students broke up into smaller groups and attempted to help each other bind their wands to their wrists, Vulchanova beckoned the stranger over. He picked up a book satchel and a brown folder to match the one Magnus had been given, before marching up to Vulchanova.“Magnus, allow me to introduce Aleksandr Ledovsky, our head boy.”Magnus stretched forward his hand to shake the stranger’s hand before remembering there was a wand attached to it, and that might not be the best idea. The boy hadn’t moved from his rigid stance, though his head seemed to dip slightly to apologise for not being able to shake his hand.He was probably a few inches shorter than Magnus, but his posture was much better, forcing Magnus to stand up straighter to meet his eyes.“Ledovsky,” Magnus repeated, the name sounding familiar, “like Russian ambassador for the CLAVE Ledovsky?”Any light that might have been in the boy’s blue eyes seemed to dim and he responded curtly,“Yes, she's my mother, and my father teaches Ancient Runes here."Somehow Magnus felt like he’d misspoken, and he paused, unusually at a loss for words.“Ledovsky is in his final year, like you, but he comes to help Professor Starkweather out whenever he can, especially if it means he can train with his sister,”Vulchanova nodded to where a raven-haired girl was expertly helping a friend bind her wand, her own already fastened to her hand with the same leather as her brothers. Magnus raised an eyebrow as he noticed her lipstick, two or three shades darker than the school cloaks, and her heels, which threatened to rival Vulchanova’s. At least someone in this school knew how to dress.“Seeing as you both have Ancient Runes next, I was hoping you could help Magnus settle in. I’ve put him in dormitory eight, so perhaps you could show him there after school?"Ledovsky nodded at Vulchanova and Magnus half expected him to salute.
As the OWL class seemed to finish up, Ledovsky’s sister came bounding over, accompanied by a redhead. Vulchanova greeted her with a brilliant smile - clearly the younger Ledovsky was an Institute favourite as well.“Well, it’s high time I got back to office, so I’ll leave you in capable hands. I’ll see you later this week for Transfiguration, if not dinner.”Vulchanova swept back into the castle, and Magnus was left alone with the two Ledovskys and the redhead, all of whom were unbinding their wands in preparation for their next lessons.The dark-haired girl thrust out a hand and Magnus took it, pleased to find her smile warm and enthusiastic.“Yelizaveta Ledovsky... but you can call me Izzy,” she grinned, amused by Magnus’ reaction to the lengthy name. “This is Klara, and I trust you’ve met my dork of a brother.”Magnus glanced at the older Ledovsky and was surprised to see his seemingly impenetrable stance had relaxed as he watched his sister talk. His face was even approaching something that might be called a smile, if Magnus was being very generous.“We should probably get to Runes," the head boy announced.
"My father doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”"Yes sir," Magnus quipped.
The joke seemed to go over his head.
Ledovsky
turned to the redhead, who looked considerably less at ease than her friend.“Klara, if you’re having trouble catching up, ask me or Starkweather for help - Izzy shouldn’t be distracted from her own work."Klara lowered her gaze and Izzy rolled her eyes at her brother, sweeping her friend away. As Magnus fell in step next to the headboy he raised an eyebrow.
"Was that really necessary?"“Klara was raised as a mundane, and only started the Institute last year,” he replied shortly. “She’s behind in most classes, and my sister is too kind to say no when she asks for help.”“It must be hard, starting the Institute late with no one helping her,” Magnus ventured.
A shadow seems to cross Ledovsky’s face. Again, Magnus seemed to have misspoken.“It was her family’s decision to keep her in mundane school so late, so it’s not as if it’s the Institute’s responsibility to help her catch up.”Magnus recognised a lost battle when he saw one.“Well, at least I’m not the only new kid,” he shrugged, and the head boy turned to look at him for the first time since they’d left the training grounds.“She’s not like you, Bane, she hasn’t had 6 years at Hogwarts to ground her.”Magnus scrunched up his nose at that.“Call me Magnus, please - Bane makes me sound like a shitty Batman villain.”Ledovsky looked both slightly confused, and taken aback at his profanity."What's Batman?"
Magnus supressed a smile."What was your name again?”“Aleksandr,” he replied, and then, seeming to surprise himself with the admission, “but everyone calls me Alek.”“Well, Aleksandr, we can’t have you thinking of me as everyone, can we?”Magnus caught his gaze and winked slowly and deliberately. Ledovsky almost missed a step as they climbed a staircase and appeared to be suddenly fixated on his own timetable.As Magnus continued watched him out the corner of his eye, he noticed the other boy’s cheeks were stained with a slight blush. Alek was clearly less impenetrable than he let on, and that blush really did wonders for his colouring.Maybe with tall, dark and handsome this year wouldn’t be so boring after all.
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Just before Alek pushed open the door to the ancient runes classroom, Magnus had a horrible thought.“Wait, is this going to be in English?”Alek turned to look at him, palm resting on the door, clearly confused.“I mean, Starkweather was teaching in English, but I don’t speak…” Magnus grasped desperately at what little he knew about Durmstrang “…Bulgarian.”Alek let out a huff of amusement, and while Magnus wasn’t pleased it was at him, it was definitely cute.“Magnus, what language do you think I’ve been speaking?”“…English?”“Russian actually,” said Alek, and then his accent changed, becoming perceptible, “if I speak English I sound like this.”Magnus stared at him blankly.“It’s the translation filter, it turns everything into your native language. Here,” Alek reached into his satchel, digging out a textbook covered in Cyrillic script. As soon as it touched Magnus’ hand, the text shimmered, so Magnus could read the title in English.Magnus passing the book back, puzzled.“But English isn’t my native language.”Alek looked at him for a moment, as if he was considering asking a question, and then shrugged. “Must be the language you’re most comfortable with. I can hear you in English if I concentrate, but otherwise, it sounds like everyone’s speaking Russian.”“So why don’t they just teach everything in English?”Alek looked at him patronisingly. “You realise not everyone speaks English, right?”Magnus was about to extoll the benefits of English as a lingua franca and point out the ironies of a white boy lecturing him on eurocentrism, but Alek was already pushing open the door to the classroom, where a stern-looking professor was writing out runes on the board.“You’re late Ledovsky,” he said without turning round, and to Magnus’ surprise Alek immediately apologised without explaining Magnus had held him up.Alek moved to sit down at the only empty desk, which was, regrettably, front and centre, and after a brief hesitation Magnus followed him. He only recognised half of the runes on the board, he realised glumly as he took his seat, but hopefully he could still keep a low profile.Professor Ledovsky – Alek’s father, he reminded himself –
turned around, eying him with clear disdain, and Magnus realised a low profile was off the table.“Bane, I presume?” his eyes flicked up and down Magnus, lingering on his hair, which Magnus liked to think of as artfully dishevelled. “That’s not a wizarding name.”Magnus exhaled through his nose. His father had a wizarding name, but he’d take the name he’d chosen over that any day.“No,” he answered, looking up to meet Professor Ledovsky’s gaze.“That’s no sir to you,” Professor Ledovsky snarled, and Magnus raised his eyebrows. No wonder Alek stood so straight all the time.“Whatever you say, sir.”The way Professor Ledovsky’s face looked, he might as well have slapped him.“Curb your insolence, boy, and stand up,” he spat, and after glancing across at Alek, who was staring resolutely at the desk, Magnus rose. “I will tolerate you in my classroom, but I refuse to have my son share a desk with a gryaznokrovka.”Magnus didn’t know what the last word meant, but it was clearly not a compliment.
“There aren’t any other seats, sir,” he replied, his temper beginning to rise.
“Pangborn, switch places with Bane,” Professor Ledovsky ordered, turning back to the board, and as Magnus glanced behind him to see who Pangborn might be, he saw a boy with a dirty blonde buzzcut immediately protest.“But sir, I can’t sit there, he’s already touched everything.”Professor Ledovsky took a sharp breath, put down the chalk, and came to stand next to Magnus’ desk. “Move,” he ordered, shooing Magnus into the aisle, and bewildered, Magnus found his feet moving of their own accord.“Scourgify.”Magnus watched in disbelief as a covering of soap suds appeared over his chair and his side of the desk, before Pangborn stood up and began moving towards the newly cleaned spot, still muttering under his breath.“You want me to sit by myself at the back of the classroom?” he asked, hoping he’d misunderstood.“I’d prefer you didn’t sit anywhere, but I suppose we must all put up with Nadezhda’s latest experiment,” Professor Ledovsky said, sneering the last word as if it were particularly distasteful. As Magnus stared at him, trying to process what he’d heard, he felt a wand jab him from behind.“Move, pederast,” sneered Pangborn next to his ear, and Magnus started forward, hastily retrieving his belongings from beneath the desk.He glanced around the classroom. Some students looked visibly uncomfortable, but a few were watching with open amusement, and Alek was avoiding his gaze, his knuckles white on his quill as he began to copy out the runes from the board.“Fuck this,” said Magnus, looking Professor Ledovsky in the eye for a split second, before whirling around, storming out, and slamming the door.He was halfway along the corridor before he realised he had no idea where he was going. He didn’t know where his room was, or the common room, or if there even was a common room. Maybe they all just beat each other up in their downtime instead.He had just reached the top of the grand staircase when he spotted the brilliant red hair of Klara, who was climbing the staircase with Alek’s sister.“Izzy, right?”Yelizaveta looked up, and then blinked in surprise.“Magnus… I thought you had ancient runes?”“Yeah, I’m not sure that’s going to work out for me…” Magnus flashed a smile, but the two girls looked concerned. “It’s a long story,” he waved a hand, “but I guess I’m free now?”Izzy looked to Klara, who nodded her approval. “Well our transfiguration class is off, so we were just heading up to the common room – maybe you can join us?” Magnus accepted gladly, and followed the girls up to the next floor.The common room was huge, taking up the top two floors of the north wing and filled with plush sofas and cozy chairs arranged into circles. There were no fireplaces, Magnus noticed, but there were fur rugs everywhere, and dotted in between the seats were several large urns filled with mulled wine, one of which Izzy was ladling into three mugs.“There’s a permanent heating charm on the urns,” she said, passing up a mug to Magnus, and he wrapped his hands around it, grateful for the warmth.“It’s not even midday and this is my second mug of mulled wine – I didn’t know Durmstrang would be so much fun.”Izzy chuckled but Klara rolled her eyes and shook her head. “The house-elves boil it so long I think you’d have to drink the whole urn for it to have any effect.”“Besides,” Izzy added, “everyone’s too cold to have any real fun.” Magnus sipped his wine and hid a smile. He was pretty sure some fire whiskey could solve that problem.“So, what happened in runes?” Izzy’s tone was light, but as Magnus watched her pick at her nails (blood red, but short and practical) he realised she cared a lot more than she was letting on.He hesitated, not wanting to upset her, before finally choosing to answer her question with one of his own.“What does it mean when the filter doesn’t translate a word?”The two girls exchanged a grim look. “The filter translates everything but names, spells, and slurs,” Klara began, before Izzy interrupted.“What did he call you? Alek’s never been around mundanes before, so it probably just came out…”“No, no, Alek didn’t say… well, anything really,” Magnus said, and then frowned. “And I’m not a mundane – I’m guessing that means muggle?” Klara nodded, and Magnus continued, “I’m muggleborn, but I’ve got magic. You guys must have a word for that too.” Technically, he was half-blood, but he didn’t say that aloud.Klara looked at Izzy, who furrowed her brow. “We must do, but I don’t know what it is in Russian. Most of the wizards I know are pureblood.”“What did they call you?” Klara’s face was grave, and Magnus remembered what Alek had said earlier.“Grya-something or other, and then something beginning with ‘p’ I think.”“Gryaznokrovka?” Klara asked and Magnus nodded. “That’s Russian for mudblood.”“How do you know that?” Izzy looked at her friend sharply.“I asked Janek what it meant last year after Elena Voronkova told me I was no better than them.” Klara spoke evenly, but this was clearly news to Izzy.“You never told me,” she said, sounding hurt, and Klara gave her sad smile.“I thought you knew – that’s why I moved out of the dorms.” Klara turned back to Magnus, clearly wanting to keep the focus on him. “Who called you that?”Magnus glanced at Izzy apologetically, “Professor Ledovsky, but the other one was Pangborn.”“Let me guess, pederast?” Izzy’s face was drawn, but she didn’t look as if either name had been a surprise.Magnus nodded. “That’s the one, I’m guessing homophobic?”“You know some Russian?” Klara asked, but Magnus was already shaking his head.“No, but I know the bible – I grew up in an orphanage run by monks,” he admitted, in response to Izzy’s
questioning look.“I’m sorry,” Klara said, placing a hand on his arm, but Magnus smiled.“It’s fine, I never really knew my parents.” It wasn’t really a lie, but Magnus felt a twinge of guilt. His mother had died when he was eight, and he’d only met his father once or twice – how could he really have known either of them?“My mother died a few years ago,” Klara said quietly, and Magnus gave her hand a small squeeze. It must be much worse losing a parent who loved you.“I’m sorry your first class was so rough,” murmured Klara, sitting back, and Izzy hummed in agreement. “What have you got for the rest of the day?”Magnus dug out his timetable. “Charms and Transfiguration, apparently,” he announced, already dreading finding either classroom.“Vulchanova’s dealing with the first formers today, so all the transfiguration classes are cancelled” Izzy said, expertly scanning the rest of his timetable. “Ooh, great! You’re in all our Martial Magic classes.”Magnus pulled a face, and Klara chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’m useless too,” she reassured him, and Magnus found himself genuinely smiling at her. Alek might be a lost cause, but at least he had made a few friends.He glanced at his watch, seeing it was nearly third period. “Can either of you show me to dormitory number eight? I should probably go find my charms textbook”“Of course,” said Klara, standing up.“You would know where that was,” said Izzy with a wicked smile, and Magnus turned to look at Klara, who was suddenly quite pink. He filed that titbit away for the future, waved Izzy goodbye, and followed the red head out the common room.The upper school dormitories turned out to be on the same floor as the common room, with the younger students sleeping above. From the glimpses Magnus caught through open doors, the rooms were identically neat, but uniformly grey and significantly more cramped than at Hogwarts.Worst of all, there appeared to be bunkbeds.Klara stopped in front of the last door on the left, which had a small black number eight painted on it, and made a ‘tadah’ motion. “Here you go, there’s a private shower room in each dorm, but there are also communal showers and extra toilets in there,” she said, pointing to the door opposite. At the end of the corridor there was one last door, this one surrounded by ornate stone carvings.“Whose room is that, the world’s fanciest caretaker?” Magnus asked, and Klara snorted.“My stepdad’s the caretaker, and he lives in a cabin down by the lake – that’s Alek’s room.” Magnus turned to look at her with an incredulous face, and she grinned. “I know – he hates it – it was all redecorated back when Viktor Krum was head boy… you know, the Quidditch player?”“Wow,” Magnus said under his breath, and Klara wrinkled her nose.“He’s not that bad,” she said, “Alek, I mean.”Magnus shook his head. “Look, I know Izzy’s your friend, but he just sat there while his dad more or less kicked me out of the classroom.”Klara sighed. “It’s his dad, and he’s head boy. What were you expecting him to do?”“I don’t know, maybe have a backbone?” Magnus was kind of joking, also not. Lack of a backbone definitely took away from the pretty face.Klara shrugged, seemingly not keen to argue the point, before leaving Magnus to his room. She’d already made it halfway down the corridor when Magnus heard her call back, “I’ll tell Janek to look out for you!”He pushed open the door to his room, wondering who the mysterious Janek was (and what exactly Klara had been doing in his room), and was greeted by the familiar sight of his trunk, stashed under the nearest bunk bed. A bunk bed... really?
There were four in the room, each with two trunks underneath, a small bedside table for the lower bunk and a shelf for the higher. Judging from the name painted onto the frame and the textbooks sitting on the sheets, Magnus had been assigned the lower bunk.He made a quick tour of the room, looking for names he recognised, and groaned as he read ‘Pangborn, A.’ on the side of the top bunk opposite him. ‘Ledovsky, J. K.’ (the elusive Janek, Magnus assumed) had lucked out with the lower bunk next to the window – the windowsill below was filled with books neatly stacked next to each other. Magnus looked closer, and let out a small gasp as the titles shifted from various languages to English, just as the textbook Alek gave him had done. If he squinted, he could see the slight shimmer around the text that must be the filter at work.He sat down on his bed and grimaced as he realised the bed above was too low for him to fully straighten his neck. Picking up the Ancient Runes textbook, he scanned the contents page with a frown – there were two chapters on Cthonian and another on Purgatic, neither of which had ever been mentioned by Professor Babbling. No wonder he hadn’t recognised the runes on the board.As he settled back against his single pillow to browse through them, he wondered briefly whether Alek would be searching for him later to show him to his room. Perhaps it’d be easiest to skip lunch and hide out as soon as charms was over – Aleksandr Ledovsky, pretty as he may be, wasn’t worth the headache.
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By 6 o’clock, Magnus was regretting having skipped lunch and feeling increasingly awkward. A few his roommates had come by after school to drop their stuff, but despite the wide eyes and muttered comments among them, no one had said hello. Well, Pangborn had thrown a murderous glance and told him to stay away from him, but that didn’t really count.He was beginning to think news of that morning had spread, and the whole school had been warned not to get too close to him, when the slim boy with light brown hair whose bunk was beneath Pangborn’s offered him some chocolate. Magnus accepted gratefully and the boy smiled shyly. The chocolate was dark, bitter, and a world away from Honeydukes.“I am Fedir. Where are you from?” he asked, and Magnus swallowed. Now that he was listening for it, he could tell from the accent Fedir was making an effort to speak in English.“The UK – I’ve just transferred from Hogwarts,” he replied and Fedir nodded, smiling.“Yes, I heard, but I meant before that.” Magnus sighed internally.“Spain, …and before that Amsterdam,” he continued, but Fedir just looked faintly confused. Magnus took pity on him. “If you’re asking why I’m brown, my mother was Indonesian.”Fedir smiled, seizing upon this information. “Indonesian? I would love to go to South-East Asia – what is it like?”“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been.” The words came out sharper than he’d intended, and Fedir blinked once or twice, clearly taken aback.“Oh… I think I will go down to dinner a bit early.” He fumbled with the chocolate wrapper and grabbed his wand from the bed before hastily waving goodbye.Magnus kicked himself. He should have expected this really – he’d spotted one black girl on his way back from charms, but the vast majority of Durmstrang students seemed to be white – and the questions hadn’t been that bad, had they? Now he’d managed to scare off the only person in his room who’d been nice to him.He left it to the last moment to head down for dinner, praying as he entered the great hall that he’d recognise someone. Thankfully, there were only a few seconds of terror before Izzy waved and beckoned him over. She was sitting alone, but seem to have saved a few seats, and as a gong sounded a pink faced Klara took her seat, trailed by, Magnus assumed, Janek.Almost immediately, tureens of stew, piles of bread rolls, and flagons of gently steaming mulled wine appeared on the table, and Klara and Izzy set about helping themselves. Janek turned to Magnus to introduce himself, sticking out a hand to shake and flashing a brilliant smile.“Klara’s told me all about you,” he said, before moving to fill his own bowl as Izzy snorted.“Right, I’m sure you’ve been doing a lot of talking.” She waggled her eyebrows and Klara elbowed her in the ribs. “Another one of my dork brothers,” Izzy said for Magnus’s benefit, and Janek stuck out his tongue.“I figured – we’re in the same dorm,” said Magnus and Janek nodded his acknowledgement. He looked around, a little unsure – though it was the first dinner of the year, everyone else had filled their bowls and started eating. “Shouldn’t we… wait for the speeches or something?”“Oh…” Izzy chuckled, “we don’t really do all that pomp and circumstance stuff. I mean, Vulchanova, the head boy, and the head girl give a speech to the first years in the morning – Max and Alek had to get here for 6 AM –” Magnus looked revolted “…but that’s about it.”As Magnus tucked in, pleased to find the stew tasted better than it looked, Izzy sat up a little straighter and looked around the hall.“Speaking of, has anyone seen Alek? It’s not like him to be late to dinner.” Magnus and Klara both shrugged but Janek swallowed his mouthful of food.“Detention with Weasley,” he said, before stuffing his mouth again.“For what?” asked Izzy, “it’s the first day of term.”Janek shrugged, this time speaking around his food. “He was half an hour late.”Klara turned Magnus, beginning to explain, but he interrupted her. “I know Professor Weasley – he’s actually my Guardian so I had to spend all summer with him.” Truth be told, he’d spent most of summer apparating to London to avoid Percy, but he’d spent enough time with him to know he was the kind of professor who’d give out detention on the first day of term.Izzy was frowning, and Magnus was half aware of her asking Janek what period this had been, but Janek’s response was drowned out by a loud scraping noise as the door the great hall was pushed open. Percy and Alek, the former looking significantly happier than the latter, had finally arrived.Alek made his way over to sit down next to Izzy, his book bag thudding unceremoniously on the floor, before nodding at Janek and serving himself from the tureen. Magnus looked at him curiously. It was the first time he’d seen Alek since the disastrous runes class, and he half wondered if the head boy was going to apologise.“He wanted five feet on the history of squibs,” grumbled Alek, tucking into his stew.“The history of squibs? Did any of them do much before dying?” Magnus looked at Janek in surprise – as far he knew, squibs didn’t have a shorter lifespan, they just couldn’t do magic.“Why do you think it took me so long?” Alex eyes flicked across to Magnus, the first time he’d acknowledged his presence. “I’ve got your home work for runes, and you can borrow my notes if you need to catch up.”Magnus stared at him incredulously.“Aleksandr… I’m dropping runes.”“Don’t worry, I talked to my dad – if you sit at the desk by the door it’ll be fine.”“Pretty sure that’s what they said to Rosa Parks,” Magnus fired back, and then raised his eyebrows in disbelief as all three Ledovskys stared at him blankly. “I take it Vulchanova’s reform hasn’t quite made it to muggle studies,” he said dryly, and Klara shook her head chuckling.“I don’t know who that is, but it’s not that big of a deal,” Alek said, brow furrowed. “Why does it matter where you sit?”“Maybe google segregation and come back to me?” Magnus’s tone was flippant, but Alek was really beginning to grate on him.
“Honestly you’re lucky he was in a good mood or you’d have detention – I apologised for you, but you should probably say something yourself.”Magnus was suddenly white hot with rage.“Next time, ask before you speak for me. If you had, I’d have told you I don’t apologise to blood supremacists.”Alek rolled his eyes, and it was only with significant effort Magnus resisted punching him.Izzy, keen to cut the tension, placed her hand on her brother’s arm, throwing an apologetic glance in Magnus' direction.“Alek, we need to talk about Max – he wants to go to the quidditch try outs, and you know if they see him fly they’ll put him on the team.”“Oh yeah,” Janek said, soaking up the last of his stew with a hunk of bread, “I told him I’d help him practice.”“What the hell Janek?” Alek and Izzy seemed furious with their brother, and Magnus was going to ask what the problem was when Vulchanova coughed behind him.“Bane, Ledovskys, Szoke, Karkaroff.” She greeted them each in turn, and Magnus frowned in confusion. Szoke must be be Klara’s surname, but he didn’t understand why she’d called Janek Karkaroff.“Janek’s just as much a Ledovsky as we are,” Izzy said swiftly, and Vulchanova smiled benignly.“Ah, yes, there are just so many of you it gets confusing,” she said, and Izzy and Alek both glowered but said nothing. She turned to Magnus. “How was your first day?”Magnus opened his mouth to make some sarcastic comment and then remembered the conversation they’d had that morning. The moment he was too much trouble, Vulchanova would expel him – he had no doubt.“…Fine,” he said, eventually, and Vulchanova seemed to buy it.“I take it you’re up for the OWL in Martial Magic?” Magnus nodded warily and she continued. “I’m afraid it might be a bit of a steep learning curve – you’ve missed the foundational years after all – but I was hoping Alek might be able to tutor you.”Magnus’ eyes widened fractionally, but across the table Alek looked as if he was going to be sick.“Why?" Alek blurted out, and Vulchanova looked puzzled. “…I mean, why me? Janek’s a better dueller.”Magnus tried not to feel offended Alek sounded as if he was desperate to avoid spending time with him.“That may be true,” said Vulchanova, “but he seems to have his hands full tutoring Ms Szoke.” She was still smiling as she nodded toward Janek and Klara, but it no longer looked genuine. “You’re both free on Tuesdays at three, so I’ve taken the liberty of booking the third floor training room out for the rest of term.”Alek nodded mutely, seeming resigned to his fate, and Vulchanova left for the teachers table, seemingly satisfied.As soon as she had left, Alek’s shot a hostile glare at Magnus. “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow, providing you’re still here that is.” Magnus bristled – it wasn’t like he’d asked for this to happen – but he didn’t rise to the bait.Conversation drifted into awkward silence, until Alek and Janek excused themselves to train together, and Magnus was left with the two girls.“Okay, three questions: why is it a problem if your little brother plays quidditch, why did Vulchanova call Janek Karkaroff, and is Alek always that much of a dick?”“Yes,” answered Klara at the same time as Izzy said "no". Magnus snorted, but Izzy didn’t look amused.“You know our dad's like, and you know what it takes for Alek to stand up to him,” she admonished Klara, who did look a bit guilty, before turning to Magnus. “And you should be thanking him – Alek was late to history because he spent half an hour persuading our dad not to kick you off the course.”Magnus was taken aback. Alek clearly disliked him, so why would he go to that much effort?“Now if you don’t mind, I have to go persuade my other idiot brother he’s too small to be flying with bludgers.” Izzy stood up abruptly and stalked over to a small, thin boy with glasses sat two tables over. Well that was one question answered, thought Magnus – Max looked far younger than eleven, and a bludger going fast enough could probably snap him like a twig.“And there were two,” he said, turning back to Klara, who was looking over at Max with the same concern. “So what’s up with Janek and Vulchanova?” he asked, and she sighed.“Janek was adopted by the Ledovskys when he was ten, but before that he grew up with his dad – Igor Karkaroff.” Klara noticed his look and nodded. “Yes, that Karkaroff, the death eater who ran. Janek was there when they hunted him down.”“And he survived?” Magnus couldn’t keep the incredulity out of his voice – he knew exactly who had killed Karkaroff, and exactly how little mercy he had.“He hid under the stairs,” said Klara, her voice tinged with sadness. “Luckily they weren’t looking for him – no one knew Karkaroff had a son.”Magnus frowned. “But what does that have to do with Vulchanova?”Klara’s mouth twisted, her expression grim. “His first year at the Institute Pangborn gave him a lot of grief – seemed to think since nobody knew anything about Janek’s mother, she must have been mundane. Eventually Janek snapped and cursed him, only it was a curse Vulchanova had never seen, really dark stuff.” Magnus raised his eyebrows, and Klara shrugged. “He said he’d seen Karkaroff cast it, and he didn’t know it was that bad, but Vulchanova’s convinced Karkaroff was training him in the dark arts.”Magnus blanched. “He was barely old enough to have a wand!”“I know,” Klara replied, “and now she’s worried he’s training me...” Magnus couldn’t help a giggle escaping him at that, and Klara flashed a grin – if there was anybody least suited to be an initiate of dark magic, it was Klara. The tension broken, they changed the subject and chatted idly about Klara’s mundane life in Hungary as they finished their meal.Magnus spent the evening in the library, getting to know Ms Gray, the kind-eyed librarian, and putting off going to his dorm. He was kicked out just before curfew with an apologetic smile, and trudged his way wearily back up to the third floor. The common room was empty and dark, but as he approached the corridor to the boys dormitories he heard Alek’s voice, and ducked into an alcove.Alek was standing, or rather kneeling, by the staircase to the lower school dormitories, talking to his youngest brother, and as Magnus listened he caught the end of the conversation.“I suppose I can’t stop you,” Alek was saying, “but you have to promise me not to train with bludgers unless either me or Janek are there.” Max seemed to agree, and then Alek paused.“You know how to use a google right?” he asked, and Max giggled, correcting his grammar. “Who are Rosa Parks and Segra Gation?”“Segregation isn’t a person, it’s some weird laws the mundanes used to have in America to keep Black and white people separate.” Max paused, and Magnus could tell Alek was still confused. “It’s kind of like how mum and dad talk about mundanes, but way worse – Black people had to use different schools, different swimming pools, even different seats on the bus…”Alek must have had some reaction to that, because Max seemed to remember the other part of his question. “Oh… right, Rosa Parks was a Black woman who refused to sit at the back of a bus… or maybe refused to give her seat up... something like that,” said Max, sounding a little unsure of the details.“Why would she be asked to do that?”“Because she was Black." There was a pause, and then Max continued, "you should really ask Klara about this, you know, they teach it in mundane schools.” He yawned loudly, and Magnus couldn’t help a surge of fondness toward the boy. He might only be 11, but it seemed Alek’s youngest brother was wise beyond his years.“It wasn’t just about the seat,” said Alek, and Max made a confused sound in reply. “Ok, it’s late, you should get to bed. You remember the spell I taught you?” Magnus heard a whispered “lumos” and a soft glow filled the entranceway. “If you get scared, just use that and come and find me – my room’s at the end of this corridor – don’t go looking for Izzy, or the alarms will go off.”Max mumbled in agreement and then Magnus heard him climbing the stairs. He waited a few moments after Alek had left before following him.So maybe he wasn’t always that much of a dick.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next morning Magnus woke up as early as possible. He had no desire to experience communal showers, and Pangborn had made it perfectly clear he wouldn’t be allowed to use the private shower in their dorm. He crept up across the corridor, hung his towel on a peg, and then reluctantly followed it with his undershirt and the thick, brown jodhpurs he’d put on as soon as he got out of bed. The castle was freezing, but luckily the hot water worked, and soon he stood under a scalding stream with his eyes closed and his head tipped back.It had been a long first day, and today wasn’t going to be any easier – he had Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Herbology to look forward to, not to mention his second Runes lesson and Alek’s tutoring.Aleksandr Ledovsky. There was something about the head boy that really got under his skin. The way he’d deferred to Vulchanova and his father – ever the perfect soldier – and perhaps more than that, the way he’d avoided looking at Magnus, as if he was an unsavoury stain it would be impolite to draw attention to.And yet he was kind, and fiercely protective of his siblings if yesterday was anything to go by. He’d been almost fatherly to Max, which was probably for the best seeing as Professor Ledovsky seemed about as paternal as a teaspoon.Magnus shook himself mentally, and rinsed off the soap he’d lathered over his body. It wouldn’t do him any good to waste time on a pretty face, and he could hear the sounds of doors opening and shutting as the corridor began to stir.By the time he got back to the room, passing a irritatingly chipper Janek on the way, the rest of his roommates were awake. He pulled on the red woollen tunic, fastening the clips and looping the belt round his waist, before rooting around in his trunk for his jewellery box and makeup. Without access to the private bathroom, he’d have to make do with a hand mirror, but a little extra glamour never hurt anyone, as he liked to say.He was cursing his shivering fingers, which were making it extremely difficult to draw straight lines, when Pangborn emerged from the bathroom and gave a derisive snort in his direction. Magnus glanced up and saw he was muttering to Theo Yaxley, a stocky sixth former who slept above Jace. He licked his finger and started smudging his liner. Perhaps today wasn’t the day to debut the perfect cat eye.Pangborn and Yaxley were still sniggering away when Janek returned from the shower, bare-chested with a towel wrapped around his waist and his blonde hair dripping with water. He grinned at Magnus and stopped to lean against the bunk bed.“You were up early.”Magnus shrugged, and then paused to look at Janek. He was shorter than Alek, but his body was that of an athlete, shifting muscles betraying the power coiled beneath. He could probably kill a man ten ways without a wand, he thought blithely, just as Pangborn called out across the room.“Better put a shirt on Karkaroff, or Bane might make a move.”“Sorry to disappoint, but blondes aren’t my type,” Magnus fired back, tacking on a “no offense” as Janek raised an eyebrow.“Ignore him - Pangborn’s a dick,” said Janek with a grim look on his face, and Magnus’ lips twitched as he remembered Klara’s story from yesterday. Whatever Janek had done to him, Pangborn had probably deserved it.He dug around in his makeup bag for some glitter, intent on pissing off as many bigots as he could, and was somewhat touched when he looked up to see that Jace hadn’t made any effort to cover himself.“I mean, super weird you’re not into this…” Janek gestured at his abs and Magnus had to refrain from rolling his eyes “…but I have it on good authority you dated blondes plural at Hogwarts.”Magnus’ stomach dropped. He should have expected this really – pure blood society was small – but he had really been hoping his secret lasted more than a day.“And whose authority would that be?” he asked, concentrating intently on the bronze glitter he was brushing across his cheekbones.“We have a mutual friend,” said Janek, “Simon.” Magnus stared at him blankly. “Hungarian guy, in Gryffindor, plays in a terrible band…?”Magnus frowned. Ragnor was always complaining about some guitarist in his dorm, but he swore that was Samuel… and now that he thought about it, there had been that guy with an accent who followed Raphael around like a lost puppy, but he was pretty sure he was called Sherwin… or maybe they were the same person?“More of an acquaintance than a friend I see,” said Janek, grinning, and Magnus held his hands up in apology.“Fine, I dated a few blondes – nobody's perfect... hang on, why would a Hungarian go to Hogwarts?”Janek looked uncomfortable. “Simon’s parents are mundane, he wouldn’t be allowed to go here.”Magnus let out a huff of surprise – somehow he’d forgotten overnight how much muggleborns were hated at the Institute.“But how does that work, surely Hogwarts would be full of Eastern Europeans?” he asked, suddenly confused.Janek shrugged. “There aren’t really that many ascendants in Eastern Europe, partly thanks to Grindelwald, but mostly because of the whole squib thing…”Magnus looked up at him, his makeup finally finished. “What the hell is an ascendant?”“You know, a mundane who’s ascended to the wizarding world…” Magnus looked at him incredulously and Janek scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “It’s an old term, I guess, but that’s what they used to call wizards with mundane parents.”Magnus finished putting a cuff on his ear and shook his head, almost laughing. Clearly he needed to ask the librarian what went down with squibs in Eastern Europe, but that aside, why were purebloods so reliably weird. Ascendant to what exactly? He’d honestly prefer gryaznokrovka.Janek shifted his weight as if to leave, and then seemed to hesitate. “Look, it wasn’t easy for Klara coming here, and both her parents are wizards, so if anyone’s giving you any trouble, just come to me or Alek.” Magnus relaxed – either this Stanley hadn’t told Janek about his father, or Janek was smart enough to not bring it up in public.“Thanks Janek,” he clapped the shorter boy on his shoulder, ignoring the mutterings of Pangborn & Yaxley, who, despite having managed to dress themselves, seemed to be intent on boring a hole in Janek’s back with their eyes.
“I can handle myself, but I appreciate it.”To his immense relief, Magnus’ morning was entirely uneventful – the charms professor had been pleased with his wand work, and MacMillan seemed to be teaching more or less the same curriculum as Hogwarts. He was less than elated to find out Pangborn was in his Defence Against the Dark Arts class, but refrained from paying him too much attention in favour of watching Alek, whose broad shoulders were conveniently two rows in front of him.Alek wasn’t exactly avoiding him, but he made no move to speak to Magnus until they were on their way out of class.“Come to runes a bit early ok? I want to show you something,” he said, and Magnus raised an eyebrow, distinctly unimpressed.“Look I’m sorry, I didn’t know…” he trailed off and Magnus didn’t help him out. “I promise it won’t be like yesterday,” he said, and Magnus was taken aback by how intense his eyes were.“Ok,” he said eventually, “but you’re going to have to talk me through Chthonic over lunch.”“I…” Alek hesitated, a light colour on his cheeks, and his eyes flickered to the door where the rest of the class were leaving.“…or not, if you’d rather not,” Magnus added, his flippant tone doing little to disguise his hurt.“No, no… it’s not that,” Alek’s words were tripping over one another, and his flush darkened. “I would, but I promised my brother I’d go flying with him.”“Max right?” Magnus asked, and Alek’s face broke into a smile, grateful that the misunderstanding had cleared.When he arrived to runes, a few minutes early as Alek had requested, he saw Alek sitting at the back next to Fedir, who smiled tentatively. Alek beckoned him over and pulled out a chair.“In case you’ve forgotten,
Aleksandr, sitting next to you was what set your dad off yesterday,” Magnus said, and to his surprise Alek smirked.“Actually it was sharing a desk,” he said, and Magnus looked closer. What he had assumed was one large desk was actually two: the smaller desk he’d been ordered to sit at yesterday, and a second, larger one that had been moved sideways so they were touching. “Technically, I’m sharing a desk with Fedir. You’re just sitting next to me.”Magnus couldn’t help the smile that came over his face. So it wasn’t perfect, but Alek was trying, and Fedir hadn’t run for the hills. He took his place, and when Professor Ledovsky strode in a minute later, he shot Magnus a furious glare, but thankfully ignored both him and Alek for rest of the hour.By the end of the day, when Magnus was due to meet Alek for tutoring, he was exhausted. Herbology hadn’t been easy, the professor requiring fastidious work despite his gentle nature, and he had no idea where this training room was supposed to be. He was wondering around the common room, truly lost, when a door opened behind him, on the other side of the room to the boys’ dormitories.“You’re late.” Alek was leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed as if he was scolding Magnus, but his eyes and the slight curve to his lips gave him away. Magnus made his way across the common room, and tried not to notice how close they were when he pushed past Alek into the training room.The room was laid out in much the same manner as the courtyard, weapons displayed anywhere they fit, but the entire western wall was taken up by three large windows. Magnus couldn’t help moving closer to look out, and then drawing in a sharp breath – the sun was setting over a verdant forest, and in the distance he could see a ring of mountains, broken only by the gimmer of blue.“It’s beautiful isn’t it.” Alek was much closer behind him than he’d realised, his breath brushing up against his ear. “Broslyn forest,” he said, quietly, in answer to Magnus’ unasked question, “and the Baltic sea in the distance. If you follow the forest south, you pass around Lake Lyn to Ydrys.” He reached around Magnus, pointing to their left, and Magnus felt his breath hitch in his throat. Alek smelled fantastic, and they really were inordinately close.The moment didn’t last long, Alek soon moving away to lean against one of the desks on the far side of the room.“So,” he said, his demeanour changing swiftly to that of the soldier Magnus had seen the day before. “What do you know about martial magic?” Magnus cocked his head, levelling him with a contemplative stare, and the corner of Alek’s mouth tipped up. “Go on, I’m sure I’ve heard it all before.”“Martial magic is a technique of duelling,” Magnus began, “pioneered in Mahoutokoro, Japan. With it the alliance swept through most of Eastern Europe and Asia in the global wizarding war, and, were it not for MACUSA and the International Confederation, they wouldn’t have stopped there.”“Right,” nodded Alek, “and now?”“They’ve stopped teaching it almost everywhere, and after the war Mahoutokoro voluntarily introduced the enchanted robes for full transparency.” Magnus kept his facial expression neutral.“Which is ironic, when you consider it was only through Soviet martial magic that the warriors of the rising sun were defeated,” Alek said, recrossing his arms, and Magnus furrowed his brow.“Sure, but then Voldemort started recruiting from Durmstrang, and we ended up with another two wizarding wars…”“The vast majority of death eaters came from Hogwarts,” Alek interrupted, and Magnus let out a huff of disbelief.“As did Dumbledore and Potter, in case you’ve forgotten.”“So we agree then,” Alek said calmly, “it’s the wizard who turns dark and not the school – or the technique for that matter.”Magnus paused. “Martial magic might not always be dark, but there were an awful lot of dark wizards who practiced it,” he said finally, and Alek shrugged.“Wouldn’t you pick the strongest technique?” Magnus rolled his eyes at that, and Alek stood up straighter, his eyes piercing blue. “What do you actually know about martial magic itself? Aside from the 10 minutes you saw yesterday with Starkweather.”Magnus opened his mouth, and then shut it again. He sighed and then gestured up at the walls “I guess there are weapons involved?”“Eventually,” Alek nodded. “The curriculum at Durmstrang is split into four stages: hand to hand combat, armed combat, magical combat, and then magical weapons.” He nodded at the walls of weapons and Magnus’ eyebrows shot up.“Like… Excalibur?”Alek chuckled. “No, the weapons themselves aren’t enchanted. They’re runed, for strength and durability, but they also function to channel the bearers magic, like a wand.” Magnus looked at him blankly, and Alek reached behind him to pick up a giant great sword. “All these weapons are forged of pure adamas with a magical core – usually veela hair. Unicorn hair works too, but then the weapons can’t be transferred.”Alek muttered a few words, a suddenly the sword was blazing with fire. Magnus startled back, and Alek grinned, dropping the spell.“We don’t touch these until the first year of NEWTs, and, as you saw yesterday, we don’t use wands until fifth year,” he said, hanging the sword back up reverently.“I’m in seventh year, Aleksandr,” Magnus said, and Alek scoffed.“Sure, but I’m guessing you have no experience of martial arts?” Magnus, shook his head, and Alek stepped back. “So that’s where we’re starting, hand to hand combat, no wands.” As Alek spoke, he unfastened the metal clips holding his tunic closed and unbuckled his belt, and Magnus’ brain suddenly panicked.“What are you doing? It’s freezing,” he asked, and Alek chuckled, slipping the tunic off and tossing it on the desk with his wand.“Trust me you’ll warm up.” He stepped onto the practice mat and made a beckoning motion with his hand. “Your job is to get me on the floor.”Magnus slipped off his own tunic – he was right, it
was
freezing – and then hesitantly took his place opposite Alek. To his fascination he saw Alek had left a few buttons undone, and he followed the line down with his eyes. Alek cleared his throat and Magnus dragged his gaze upward, suddenly remembering what he was supposed to be doing.“This is ridiculous,” he said, circling Alek slowly, but Alek didn’t respond, moving in tandem with him and keeping the distance between them.“If you want to grapple me, you have to get closer.” It might have been his imagination, but Magnus could have sworn Alek’s voice sounded a little unsteady.He stepped forward, reaching for Alek’s arm, but in an instant Alek grabbed his wrist and effortlessly twisted it, forcing Magnus to turn, before reaching around with his spare hand to slam Magnus’ against his chest.“Fuck,” said Magnus, Alek chuckled against the side of his neck. “You could at least buy me a drink first,” he joked, and he felt Alek’s arm suddenly stiffen up.“It’s… I didn’t… this my wand hand,” Alek stammered, tapping two fingers against the hollow at the bottom of Magnus’ throat before releasing him.Magnus turned around, delighted to find Alek’s cheeks flushed with a slight pink. “So… you’d have stunned me?”“Or killed you,” Alek said coolly, collecting himself and widening his stance again. Magnus raised his eyebrows at that, but nevertheless returned to the task at hand.He spent the next half hour making countless advances, all of which Alek evaded with ease, and most of which ended up in Alek holding him in an extremely uncomfortable position. Each time, Alek tapped the two fingers of his wand hand gently against Magnus’ throat to show him where he was vulnerable.As Magnus disentangled himself from what felt like the hundredth wrist lock, he groaned in frustration.“Come
on
Aleksandr, this is never going to happen – you’re always going to see me coming.” Alek snorted derisively, and Magnus rolled his eyes. “Oh I’d like to see you try any better.”Alek began striding toward him, and too late Magnus realised his mistake. Two hands grabbed his shirt, pulling him sideways as Alek kicked a leg over his body, and before he knew it he was flat on his back with Alek straddling him, the head boy’s expression grimly triumphant. Magnus held his breath, ready for the double tap that signalled his hypothetical demise, but Alek seemed to be frozen in time, one hand pinning Magnus’ wand hand out to the side and his eyes fixed on Magnus.Instead of placing his fingers on his neck, or jaw, as he had done countless times before, Alek brought them up to his face, and ever so gently traced along his cheekbone, where Magnus had brushed glitter earlier that morning.“Aleksandr?” Magnus asked softly, and Alek blinked, his eyes startled, before suddenly scrambling to his feet. He paced to the side of the room, running a hand through his hair and hastily picking up his tunic and his wand.“I… I shouldn’t have done that,” he said, more to himself than Magnus. Magnus propped himself up on one elbow and called out his name again, but Alek was already making to leave, his cheeks stained crimson with blush.As Alek turned around, hand on the door, Magnus’ stomach was in knots. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but Alek was clearly on edge.Alek caught his eye, a determined set to his jaw despite the flush on his face.“See you next week – same time, same place.”Magnus blinked in surprise, and then Alek was gone, door swinging shut behind him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Dearest Ragnor,
I write you from Castle Dumstrang, or ‘the Institute,’ as they call it here. Lessons are a terrible bore (I miss your ineffable wit in herbology) but if I’m good they’ll teach me how to hit things with giant sticks or something like that. I’m told the exercise lessens the chill but frankly I’m hoping the head boy might get me hot and bothered instead. Give my love to Catarina, and please send news of your travels and chocolate that actually tastes of something.
All my love,
Magnus
P.S. I’m hoping this owl will make it to Peru, but he’s looking a bit peaky, so my apologies if recuperation is required.
Magnus added a flourish to his signature and then tied the letter to the leg of a large brown owl, who was looking at him with baleful eyes.“I know, I know, it’s a long way to go,” he muttered, ushering the owl out the open window. He rubbed his hands together, desperately trying to counteract the chill, and then set off on the short walk from the owlery to the castle. He’d barely gotten any sleep last night, and while he’d made it through Herbology and Potions without falling asleep, he could really do with a nap. Preferably next to an open fire, but since those were inexplicably in short supply, he’d have to do without.As he turned the corner, his eyes were drawn to a pair of familiar figures – Alek and Janek were sparring in the courtyard along with (he presumed) the rest of the NEWT class. He leant against a pillar, his curiosity overtaking his need for warmth as Alek and Janek circled each other with matching wooden staffs.Janek was twirling the staff lazily round his hands like it was weightless, but Alek wasn’t distracted by the show, waiting for his opponent to make the first move. Suddenly Janek lunged, the staff coming down lightning fast, but Alek was ready to parry it, spinning into a low sweeping kick that Janek was forced to jump over.A smile tugged at Magnus’ mouth as it seemed that Alek had the upper hand, but as Janek hit the ground he planted the staff in front of him, using the momentum to flip over Alek’s head and landing in a crouch behind him. Alek tried to pivot to face his brother, but Janek was too fast, the end of his staff already raised to Alek’s chest.Instead of yielding however, Alek hooked his own staff between Janek’s arms and leant backwards, letting his body weight pull them both to the floor. For a moment it looked like Janek would collapse on top of the taller boy, but then Alec forced his staff above his head and Janek was thrown back the way he’d come, yelling as he hit the floor. The brothers were head to head, laughing breathlessly, with Alek’s staff under Janek’s chin.“Almost beautiful, isn’t it.”Magnus started, and turned his head to find Klara next to him, watching the same fight. Those hadn’t been the words that came to mind – maybe “insane” or “rife with sexual tension” – but he probably shouldn’t voice those thoughts aloud.“They’ve been training together since they were kids,” Klara continued, apparently taking Magnus’ silence as agreement.“Who usually wins?” Magnus asked, and Klara flashed a grin.“Janek – in an ordinary duel he would have stunned Alek before the throw, but neither of them like cutting a fight short.” Magnus gave her a look, and she laughed. “Kind of crazy, I know, but you get used to it.He turned back to the fight and bit his lip as he watched Alek twirl the staff, the memory of calloused fingers ghosting over his cheekbones. Klara was watching him, he realised, a gleam in her eyes.“How was tutoring?” she asked, and Magnus shrugged, schooling his face.“Boring. Alek treats me like I’ve just got my wand,” he said, forcing himself to turn away from the archway, and Klara snorted.“Yeah, I had a lot of that last year…”“…but that’s the thing,” Magnus interrupted, falling in step with her, “you had just got your wand – no offense. I already know how to duel, just… not the way he wants me to.”Klara furrowed her brow, and was about to ask a question when Janek called out behind her.“Wait up, we’re coming to lunch!” He hurried up to kiss Klara, pulling his tunic back on as he did. Alek followed a few steps behind, his fingers fastening the metal clips on his. Magnus waited for him, letting the couple walk ahead, but Alek barely acknowledged him as he caught up.“So that’s martial magic, huh,” Magnus said, watching Alek out the corner of his eye.Alec grunted, which Magnus assumed meant yes. They walked in silence for a moment, and then Alec glanced sideways.“What did you think?”“A little homoerotic if you ask me,” Magnus said dryly, and Alec froze beside him.“What?”Magnus turned around, seeing Alek had stopped walking and shrugged. “It looked like you were having fun throwing Janek around…”“That’s disgusting.” Alek’s looked slightly ill, and Magnus gave him an incredulous look. Alek pushed past him to continue down the hall, and after a moment Magnus followed him, confused and slightly on edge.“…why does that bother you so much?”“He’s my brother,” Alec hissed, and Magnus raised his eyebrows.“Okay, but I know you’re not actually related, and it was only a joke.”Alek didn’t reply, so Magnus continued. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it.”They carried on walking in silence, some way behind Klara and Janek. Alek’s face was still stony, and his hands were clenched by his side.“You can’t just say things like that,” he muttered under his breath, and Magnus shook his head.He wasn’t sure if Alek had a problem with him joking about Janek specifically, or just the insinuation he might not be straight, but either way there was a lot to unpack.As they sat down to lunch, they were joined by Izzy, who was chattering excitedly with the black girl Magnus had seen on Monday – a fourth year with long honey-blonde braids that Izzy introduced as Maia.“Maia’s trying out for the team too – it’ll be so great if Hodge picks more than one girl.” She grinned excitedly, and Janek turned to the younger girl.“What position?”“Beater,” she said as she sat down, her eyes challenging someone to comment on her stature – no one dared.“How does Quidditch work here?” asked Magnus, helping himself to a bread roll. “I mean, at Hogwarts we play in house teams, but…”“…no houses here,” finished Janek, flashing a grin as he put together a sandwich of ambitious proportions. “Usually, there are a bunch of teams who enter into the league – they have to be captained by a sixth or seventh year, but anyone can play.” He took an enormous bite out of the sandwich and Izzy rolled her eyes, continuing the explanation.“It sounds fair, but it kind of sucks. Turns out if you let teenage boys pick the teams the girls just don’t play.” She gave a wry smile.“But this year there’s a school team,” said Maia, flashing Magnus a smile.“So the girls will actually get to fly?”Janek looked up from his sandwich.“Starkweather’s tough, but he gives credit where it’s due.”“Hey Magnus,” said Izzy, “do you play?”“What, quidditch?” Magnus thought briefly of his trusty Cleansweep which was buried at the bottom of his trunk. “Nah, not really my thing.”At that Alek snorted.“What exactly is your thing, Bane?”“Alek!” Izzy was glaring at her brother, but Alek didn’t seem to care.“What? I’m just curious. You’ve never seen demonic runes before, you could barely take Max in a fight – I don’t know about everything else but let’s face it, you’re not exactly the model student.”The table fell silent and Magnus turned to look at Alek. The head boy was glowering at him with piercing blue eyes and a hostile set to his jaw. Magnus arched an eyebrow, but although Alek’s cheeks flushed he didn’t back down.“Well, day three, and it appears I’ve already outstayed my welcome. I’ll see you around.” He picked up the cheese sandwich he’d made and wrapped it in a napkin before standing up. Clearly Alek was lashing out, and he had no interest in hanging around to be target practice.Izzy called after him as he left the hall, but Magnus didn’t look back, and no-one came after him.He spent the rest of lunch down by the lake, skimming stones and trying to ignore a group of third years who were speaking in hushed whispers and giggled whenever he looked in their direction.He wasn’t sure what was going on with Alek – although he had his suspicions – but all of his instincts were telling him to steer clear.And yet there was already some kind of connection between them – after all he couldn’t exactly avoid him when they had one-to-one tutoring sessions and Izzy and Klara were the only friends he’d made so far.Worst of all, there was a part of him that had been hurt that Alek thought so little of him, which was ridiculous given they’d known each other all of three days.
By last period, he was in a foul mood, which only got worse as he made his way to the Transfiguration classroom. He should have been excited for his first class – Transfiguration had been his favourite subject at Hogwarts – but as he reached the classroom, he saw the back of Alek’s head and nearly groaned aloud. Every seat was taken with the exception of the chair directly in front of the head boy. He sat down reluctantly, mumbling a greeting to the blonde-haired girl next to him and trying to ignore the feeling of Alek’s eyes on the back of his neck.When Vulchanova arrived she announced they’d be practicing changing the colour of their hair – a spell Magnus had perfected many years ago. It was clear from the murmurs of relief around him that this wasn’t entirely unfamiliar to most of the students. Vulchanova, unlike some professors, seemed to believe in easing their return after the summer holidays.That didn’t stop him from feeling smug when he turned his hair hot pink effortlessly and was rewarded with wide eyes from his desk mate and a pleased nod from Vulchanova. He spent the next twenty minutes showing his desk mate how to add coloured highlights to her hair and trying not to smirk as he listened to Alek struggle with the incantation behind him.When they packed up at the end of the hour, Alek was eying him with begrudging respect. Since their Defence Against the Dark Arts classes had been theoretical so far, this was the first time the he’d seen Magnus do any real magic, and it seemed he had more than surpassed Alek’s expectations. Not that Alek admitted he was wrong, of course. That would be too much to ask.The rest of the week seemed to pass in a blur. Alek, while no longer openly hostile, was still distant. Izzy had apparently given him his last warning and sworn to jinx him if he was rude again, but privately Magnus thought there was a difference between rudeness and indifference. That didn’t stop him watching Alek from afar, and once or twice awkwardly locking eyes. Alek always looked away first, and Magnus tried not to care.Which is why it was all the more surprising when Alek sat down next to him in the common room on Friday evening.“I was being a dick.”Magnus looked up from his book – a guide to healing potions – and blinked in confusion. It was more of a statement of fact than an apology, but, hey.
“…and hello to you too.”Alek continued, his eyes fixed on a table in front of them.“No one knows why you left Hogwarts, so I just assumed…”“…that I’d failed out?”Alek caught his eye and nodded, cheeks faintly pink. He hesitated, and Magnus wondered if he was going to have to lie to him.“I was thinking, if you still wanted help with Chthonic, maybe you could help me with transfiguration? I’m miles behind.”Magnus knew he should say no – the less time alone, the less they could argue – but then Alek gave him a shy smile and he found himself agreeing.Somehow, he’d already developed a weakness.They spent an hour that evening going through the runes that Magnus didn’t know. Alek was a patient teacher, and sitting side by side Magnus had more opportunity to study him out the corner of his eye.
Eventually Alec excused himself, admitting he needed an early night before the quidditch try-outs.
Magnus wished him good luck, but called his name just before he turned into the boys corridor.“What do you fly? The position I mean.”Alek smiled properly this time, and Magnus ignored the fluttering in his stomach.“I’m a keeper.”He didn’t make the joke, but that didn’t stop him thinking it.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next morning, Magnus dragged himself out of bed at a frankly ungodly hour to head down to the quidditch grounds. The Ledovskys had been a rare sight as the try-outs grew close, cramming in as much practice as possible. In their absence, Klara had taken to sitting with him at meal times, passing on the latest gossip and bonding over their shared infamy. Being relatively new to the wizarding world, she couldn’t answer all of Magnus’ questions about the wizarding history and politics of Eastern Europe, but he was rapidly becoming fond of her nonetheless.Well, he had been, until she’d persuaded him to watch the quidditch try-outs and then had the nerve to be late. The wooden cabin where Klara lived with her step-father was at the far end of the pebbled beach, just before the thorny hedges that marked the end of the Institute’s grounds. The caretaker was a giant of a man with weather-beaten skin and bushy eyebrows, who’d stuck his head out very briefly to tell him Klara was still getting changed.As the minutes ticked on, Magnus found himself wishing he’d asked to wait inside so he didn’t have to pace up and down just to keep warm. The cabin was unassuming but homely, with a large porch on the two sides overlooking the beach. Around the side that faced the sea there was a swing seat, a pile of firewood and a row boat that had been turned upside down to dry out. Surprisingly for such a small boat, it had an anchor of wrought iron, which was resting on top of the coiled chain.Magnus was bending down to see the name of the boat when Klara emerged, wearing a woolly hat and carrying a huge flask, which she announced was hot chocolate.“That better have rum in it,” Magnus said, only half joking even if it was
8 am. As he glanced behind them, he saw the caretaker waving goodbye, his rough features transformed by a soft smile.“I’ve known Luke ever since I can remember,” Klara said as they made their way back along the shore. “I couldn’t believe it when I found out he was a wizard.”“Your mum too right?”Klara nodded, but her smile had fallen away, and Magnus remembered too late her mother had died.“They never got married,” she said, her eyes distant, “but he’s the only dad I remember.”“Then he’s the only dad you need,” Magnus said firmly, and Klara shot him a grateful smile.As they approached the quidditch grounds, which were at the foot of Broslyn plain, they could hear the chatter of students waiting their turn to warm up. There were a few other spectators dotted around the stands, but for the most part it was too early and too cold for an audience.“Remind me why we’re here again,” said Magnus, rubbing his hands together as he sat down. “Is it just so you can ogle Janek or…”“Please,” Klara scoffed. “Like I’m the only one.”Magnus dragged his eyes away from the pitch, where he definitely hadn’t been watching Alek straighten Max’s quidditch robes, and looked offended.“Why does everyone think I’m into Janek? He’s not even that hot.”“Firstly, come on…” Klara gave him a look “…and secondly, I wasn’t talking about Janek.”She had a knowing look in her eye, and Magnus looked away to hide the faint blush on the top of his cheeks. Was he really that obvious?He was saved any further questions by a loud whistle as Starkweather called their attention.The first candidates to be called were those trying out for seeker – the position Magnus was most familiar with, but also the easiest to judge. Starkweather was holding a stopwatch, which he would use to time the candidates as they tried to catch the golden snitch.He couldn’t help the pang of fear in his stomach as he saw the three figures step forward: alongside Max and a thin-faced fifth year stood Pangborn, an arrogant smirk on his face.“Pangborn’s team won the league last year,” Klara said, watching as Starkweather’s assistant released the snitch, and began counting down the thirty seconds until Pangborn’s time started. When Starkweather blew the whistle, Magnus watched carefully as Pangborn shot up and over the stands, heading toward the owlery.His technique was good. Not perfect – his steering was heavy handed so he lost time trying to follow the snitch’s every twist and turn – but when he raised his hand triumphantly, applause echoing around the pitch, Starkweather called the time as a minute twenty.Next up was the fifth year – Nilsson, Klara whispered – who was looking nervous. His friends shouted their encouragement as he followed the snitch toward the lake, but the first time he reached out for it he overbalanced and nearly toppled off his broom. By the time he’d righted himself and caught back up, his time was nearly three minutes.Magnus watched as he flew the snitch back to Starkweather, a smattering of applause coming from the collected students. Nilsson held his hand out to Pangborn with an easy smile, but Pangborn didn’t shake it. Magnus was too far away to hear what he said, but judging from his cronies’ laughter and Nilsson’s reddening face, it hadn’t been kind.“That was unnecessary,” said Magnus with a frown on his face, but Klara didn’t reply, her attention focused on the youngest Ledovsky whose countdown had already begun.The nimbus Max was holding looked almost comically oversized next to his small frame, but his grip was sure and his face determined. Pangborn wasn’t even watching, seemingly satisfied that his position was secure.As Hodge blew the whistle, Max shot up and Magnus let out a low whistle.He was fast, much faster than Pangborn, and he was closing in on the snitch with laser-like focus. The snitch was headed for a thicket of trees, and Magnus held his breath as Max lay flat against the broom and flew all out. It was going to be tight.The minute he had the snitch Max stood up on the metal footgrips, pulling the broom hard to the left with his remaining hand and scraping against a few branches as he turned around. Janek whooped loudly, Starweather called the time as a minute ten and Klara grabbed Magnus’ arm in excitement.“He did it!” she yelled, and Magnus couldn’t help but grin along with her, her enthusiasm infectious. As Max landed, Izzy greeted him with a bone crushing hug and most of the assembled students applauded enthusiastically. Pangborn however, who was in between Yaxley and a girl with thick blonde-brown hair, looked furious as Starkweather announced that the seeker would be Max.Janek clapped Max on the shoulder and Izzy bent down to congratulate him, but Magnus couldn’t help notice that Alek was hanging back. He was looking off to one side, and as Magnus followed his gaze he saw Pangborn had gone to speak with Starkweather’s assistant.“He’ll be complaining,” Klara said, “but Safar won’t have any of it – Max won fair and square.” Magnus hummed his agreement, but there was something about Alek’s expression that worried him. He looked tense, and Magnus suspected this wouldn’t be the last they heard of Pangborn.The next trials were for beaters, and Magnus smiled as he saw Maia step forward alongside Yaxley, a seventh year that Magnus recognised from his Charms class, and dark-skinned boy with short brown hair who was nearly as tall as Alek.
“That’s Velasquez,” said Klara, “he takes History of Magic with Janek.”Magnus watched as the boy stepped forward to take one of the two bats Starkweather was holding. He certainly had the most stereotypical build of the four hopefuls and he looked confident with his bat.“I didn’t know he was trying out – the beaters on Pangborn's team are Yaxley and Poliakoff.” Klara nodded at the seventh year, who had taken the second bat.The beater try-outs were slightly more complicated. The candidates would fly against each other two at a time, and were each assigned a ‘chaser’ to protect – either Safar, Starkweather’s assistant, or Janek, Starkweather’s star pupil. They were given three minutes of play with both bludgers on the field, during which their goal was to make life as difficult as possible for the opposing duo.As Velasquez and Poliakoff faced off against each other, it was clear Velasquez had the upper hand. He forced two or three evasive maneuvers from Safar, who Poliakoff had been assigned to defend, while Poliakoff struggled to be in the right place to actually hit either bludger.Yaxley and Maia were next, and there were some murmured comments and a few giggles as Maia picked up the bat. Janek flashed her a grin as she was assigned to him, and she seemed to relax a bit, swinging the bat a little to get a feel for it.“He’s built like a tank,” murmured Klara, watching with concern as Yaxley immediately set about thwacking the bludger nearest him after the whistle blew.Magnus didn’t reply, watching closely as Yaxley swung at the second bludger. He was strong – that much was obvious from the sheer distance the bludgers were flying – but he didn’t seem to care where he was hitting the bludgers, aiming indiscriminately. Maia, on the other hand, wasn’t hitting as hard, but seemed to be much more aware of her surroundings.“Strength isn’t everything, look at that.” Magnus pointed as Maia expertly aimed a bludger at Safar, who was forced to roll under his broom to avoid being hit. Yaxley, busy chasing the other bludger, was too far away to do anything about it.When Starkweather announced the beaters as Velasquez and Robertsen (which Magnus gathered was Maia’s surname) there were immediate noises of dissent from Pangborn’s group. Pangborn made his case to Starkweather this time, and though he was a good distance away Magnus could make out him complaining that Yaxley was far stronger than Maia, and – when that didn’t work – that Starkweather hadn’t actually seen Yaxley fly against Velasquez.Starkweather made it clear that his decision was final, but even as Izzy rushed to congratulate Maia, he was still talking with Pangborn and Yaxley. He seemed to be placating them in some way, and Magnus was about to ask Klara whether there was a reserve team when the whistle blew again. After calling the names of the students who’d signed up to try out as a chaser, Janek and Izzy among them, Starkweather announced that any candidates who’d been unsuccessful in the previous trials could add their names if they wanted to.“Crap,” Klara said as Pangborn and Yaxley joined the group in front of Starkweather.“It doesn’t mean they’ll get it,” Magnus reassured her, “the skills you need to be a chaser are completely different.”“Pangborn’s played chaser before,” she said, chewing her lip, but Magnus wasn’t concerned. The Ledovskys had been training together all week, and good flying clearly ran in the family.“If Janek and Max are anything to go off, Izzy’s got nothing to worry about.”“It’s not just that,” said Klara, still looking worried. “The chaser try-outs are in teams, and Pangborn hates Izzy – he’s the reason she’s never played in the league before.”Magnus grimaced, and then suddenly had a thought.“Wait, why didn’t Izzy just play for Alek?”“Alek didn’t captain a team – he played for Pangborn.”“Seriously?” Magnus couldn’t keep the shock out of his voice.“I know,” Klara said, “Izzy was disappointed, but Alek and Janek have been playing with that team for years – Pangborn kind of inherited it – and he refused to even see her fly.”“Oh so it’s sexist and nepotist, how could they refuse,” said Magnus, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
“I don’t really understand it either, but I think their families know each other from Russia.”Klara took a sip of her hot chocolate and then passed it along to Magnus, who accepted gladly. It wasn’t necessarily a surprise that the Ledovskys knew Pangborn before the Institute – pureblood society was small – but he was still having difficulty imagining it.“Janek hates Pangborn.”“…but he loves Alek,” Klara said with a small smile. “He’d never play against him.”With Pangborn and Yaxley there were now nine students trying out for chaser, and Izzy was the only girl. They watched nervously as Starkweather split them into teams of three, and Klara breathed a sigh of relief as Izzy was put with two other fifth formers. Pangborn and Yaxley were paired with a seventh year Magnus recognised from potions, and Janek was in the remaining group. The teams would rotate, each trio having a chance to defend or attack, while Safar acted as keeper. After that, Starkweather would run drills with the best candidates, making sure they worked as a team.When the first round of play began – Izzy’s team defending against Pangborn & Yaxley’s – Magnus watched just long enough to see that Pangborn unfortunately knew what he was doing, before his attention was drawn to Alek, who’d begun warming up on the sidelines. While Alek had been waiting, he’d been wearing the scarlet school cape with its thick fur lining, but he’d removed that now to reveal a woven brown sweatshirt and jodphurs. Presumably before he’d fly he’d put on his padding and the lightweight scarlet robes everyone else was wearing.Magnus’ throat suddenly became dry as Alek stopped jogging up and down and began a series of stretches. Apparently the head boy was flexible, very flexible, and as Alek bent over to press his palms against the floor, legs spread wide, he tried not to stare.The whistle blew, and Klara joined in the applause, turning to say something to him. Magnus dragged his eyes away from Alek.“What?”“I said Izzy did well, I have no idea how she blocked that last shot.”“Oh? I didn’t see it.”Klara looked at him, confused“How did you miss it? She was hanging by one–” Klara broke off as she saw Alek, who was now in a deep lunge.She snorted, shaking her head, and Magnus flushed.He paid more attention to the second round – Pangborn defending against Janek – if only to save him from further embarrassment. Pangborn put up a decent fight, but Yaxley was somehow always in the wrong place, meaning Janek slipped through their defences time and time again. He smiled as he noticed that Janek passed to his teammates even when he didn’t need to, ensuring that both candidates managed to score even though he was doing most of the work.When it was Izzy’s turn to attack, Magnus watched her fly with interest. She was good – almost as good as Janek – and though the fifth years she was playing with rarely passed her the quaffle, when they did, she scored. Janek wasn’t making it easy for her, and Magnus watched, impressed, as she passed the quaffle over his head, dove steeply to catch it on the other side, and then threw it into the furthest hoop.“Oh come on!”Magnus raised his eyebrows, as he realised it was Pangborn who was loudly complaining below.“Ledovsky isn’t even trying to block her, it’s pathetic.”Alek glared at him from where he’d begun lacing up his pads, but it was Maia who called him out.
“Maybe if you could pull that move you’d have managed to get past Izzy to score more than twice.”“No one asked you, mutt.”Magnus sucked in a breath at Pangborn’s reply, but before anyone could say anything there was a loud crack as Velasquez punched him in the face.Pangborn yelled with pain, and there was sudden commotion as the girl he’d been sitting next to earlier screamed for Starkweather’s attention and Maia began yelling at Velasquez.The whistle blew to mark the end of the round, and Starkweather stormed over, demanding to know what was going on. The girl next to Pangborn immediately told him Velasquez had attacked Pangborn unprovoked, and that he was too violent to be trusted as a beater.“What the hell?” asked Magnus and Klara sighed.“That would be Elena Voronkova, Pangborn’s fiancée.”Magnus raised his eyebrows. That explained some things.To their relief, Pangborn quietened down when he was told that if he went to the infirmary to check his nose wasn’t broken – which Voronkova was insisting he needed to – he’d miss the rest of the try-outs. Starkweather refused to remove Velasquez from the team, but he did give both Pangborn and Velasquez detention, which struck Magnus as unfair.There was more grumbling from Pangborn’s group when Starkweather announced he wanted to see Janek, Izzy and Pangborn fly together, but to Magnus’ surprise, Pangborn didn’t put up much of a fuss.As soon as the drills started, Magnus realised why, his stomach sinking.Pangborn was purposefully throwing Izzy difficult passes, forcing her to veer off course to catch them and making sure he and Janek made the majority of the goals. If Izzy was nearer, he’d pass to Janek over her head, and then make snide comments whenever Janek threw the quaffle back to Izzy to let her shoot.Starkweather stopped them, and called Safar over, discussing in hushed voices.“Sir, perhaps we could try it with Yaxley?” Pangborn’s voice was unbearably smug. “We’re used to playing together.”Starkweather and exchanged a look with Safar, and then nodded curtly. Izzy went white, and Janek immediately protested.“Izzy scored twice as many goals as Yaxley!”“Only because you let her.”“Quiet!” Starkweather yelled. “This isn’t a final decision, we’re just seeing how you work as a team.”Izzy walked back to the sidelines, her face grim, and Magnus watched in glum resignation as Janek, Pangborn and Yaxley began the same set of drills. Of course this time, Pangborn’s passes were all measured, and after a few moments, Izzy turned around and left the pitch, storming back to the castle.Pangborn smirked as he saw her leave, nearly missing the quaffle Janek had launched at him, and Starkweather yelled at him to pay attention.“You think she’s given up?” Magnus asked Klara.“I don’t know, but I wouldn't blame her if she has.”However much Pangborn schemed, he couldn’t improve Yaxley’s aim - Magnus’ lips twitched slightly as the boy missed the goal for the second time and Janek rolled his eyes.Suddenly, the crowd below parted as Izzy reappeared, dragging another girl behind her. The girl had long blonde hair which was plaited neatly down her back, and looked as if she’d just come from the library – she was wearing dark jeans and a sweater instead of quidditch robes and had a book bag slung over her shoulder.“Who’s that?”Klara looked down and raised her eyebrows.“That’s Lidia Bronowski, the head girl. She used to train with Izzy all the time, even tried to captain a team last year, but she couldn’t get together enough players.”“Ouch.”Izzy was speaking rapidly to Starkweather, and as he saw what was going on, Janek flew down to join her. Lidia had put down her bookbag, and was watching the conversation with folded arms.“Do you know why she didn’t try out?” Magnus asked.“She said there wasn’t any point – she stopped training with Izzy some time last year anyway. She was good though.”Starkweather blew his whistle, and there was a brief silence until he said he wanted to see Izzy, Janek and Lidia fly together.Pangborn was furious, yelling that Lidia hadn’t even signed up – Klara muttered “neither did he” under her breath – and insisting they’d already found the team.Starkweather was having trouble being heard above the din, until he pointed his wand at his throat and whispered a word.“Alright!” he thundered, his voice magically amplified.“Seeing as there are only two students trying out for keeper, we’re going to combine the two trials. Ledovsky, Kovalenko,” he nodded at Alek and the boy standing next to him, who Magnus suddenly recognised as Fedir, “you’ll be at opposite goalposts, swapping positions halfway through.“Pangborn, since you so fervently believe Yaxley belongs on the team, you’ll be with him, and you can pick a third teammate from the other candidates…”Pangborn opened his mouth to say something, but Starkweather held up a finger to silence him.“…you’ll be playing against Bronowski, and the Ledovskys – Janek and Yelizaveta that is – whichever team scores the most in ten minutes, we’ll take to the cup.”Magnus frowned.“Which cup?” he asked Klara, who looked at him strangely.“The quidditch one...” she trailed off, shushing him as the players took their positions, a burly seventh year who’d flown with Janek joining Pangborn and Yaxley.Safar tossed the quaffle, and Janek swooped it to snatch it from Pangborn’s hands, effortlessly evading Yaxley before passing to Lidia. Magnus watched the head girl fly with interest. Her technique was flawless, and he let out a huff of surprise as she barrel rolled mid-air to avoid Pangborn, who had flown directly at her.“Damn, she can fly.”Klara nodded, and then cheered loudly as Lidia’s shot was deflected by Alek.“I don’t know who I’m supposed to be rooting for,” Magnus laughed, and Klara grinned and shrugged, reminding him the keepers would swap after five minutes.Janek, Izzy and Lidia worked well together, but despite their efforts, they only managed to score once in the five minutes, Alek working hard to keep the quaffle away from the hoops. Unsurprisingly, the eldest Ledovsky was as talented as his siblings, saving throws Magnus was convinced were going in and far outmatching any keeper he’d seen at Hogwarts.He found himself watching Alek even when the quaffle was down the other end – the headboy was at complete ease on his broomstick, looping in figures of eight in front of the posts as he followed the gameplay.
When the whistle blew for the keepers to trade places, Klara told him Pangborn managed to score twice against Fedir, but Magnus wasn’t worried. Fedir was putting up a good fight by all accounts, but no matter how hard Pangborn tried, no quaffles were getting past Alek.The remainder of the time was a slaughter, Izzy and Lidia scoring a goal apiece while Janek turned his previous goal into a hattrick. Pangborn and the seventh year both managed to get some decent shots off, but Alek blocked everything sent his way with ease. Magnus could tell they were getting more and more frustrated.In the thirty seconds of play, Pangborn intercepted a pass from Lidia, barrelling down to the far end before passing to Yaxley as Janek caught him up. Pangborn yelled at him to shoot, and Yaxley threw the ball with a loud grunt.It was a terrible throw, wide and far too low, but Alek moved to intercept it anyway. In a smooth movement, he kicked one leg over and leant backwards off his broom, catching himself with his knees. He caught the quaffle as the whistle blew, and Magnus couldn’t help but grin. It was shameless showboating – something he would have thought beneath Alek – but damn was it hot.He was momentarily transfixed as Alek tossed the quaffle to Janek before pulling himself back up to grip the broom handle, his biceps bulging as he unkooked his knees. By the time he’d swung his legs back up, catching the footrests with and righting himself with ease, Klara had left her seat and was already making her way down to the pitch.Magnus followed her, watching fondly as she threw herself into Janeks arms and then pushed him away to hug Izzy. Janek was lifting up Max and swinging him around, yelling they were going to be the best quidditch team Durmstrang had ever seen, so Magnus thought it only fair he should congratulate the remaining Ledovsky.“Well played,” he said, his eyes crinkling as Alek ducked his head.“Thanks, I didn’t know you were watching.”Magnus shrugged. “Sorry, should I have said?”Alek shook his head, and then lowered his voice slightly.“You might have distracted me.”Magnus nearly choked on his own spit.That had to be flirting.“Does that mean you don’t want me to come see your first game?”“I don’t think you can,” Alek said, and Magnus raised his eyebrows. “It’s an away game.”“Oh, right.” He remembered Klara’s comment about the cup, and frowned. “Wait, who are you playing?”Alek looked at him strangely.“Didn’t anyone tell you?”Magnus shook his head.“Why would they?”“We’re playing Hogwarts, Magnus.”Shit.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Magnus couldn’t breathe.There was freezing cold water, everywhere, and something solid above his head.“What the fuck Pangborn?”He was dimly aware of a voice yelling from above, and raucous laughter coming from the bunk opposite.Not just any voice, Janek.He sucked in a lungful of air as he realised where he was.Not drowning, being held under by hands much stronger than him, but in the Institute dormitories, on the bottom of a bunkbed.Another rush of fear swept through him as he tuned into what Janek was yelling.“I swear, when Vulchanova hears about–”“No, you don't need to... it's fine.”Janek turned to look at him in confusion, his face lit by his wand.“It's nothing that can’t be solved by magic,” Magnus said, grabbing the wand on his bedside table to cast a quick drying charm on the sheets and a second on his pyjamas.Janek studied his face, and then sighed.“Fine, but I’m watching you,” he glared at Pangborn who was sitting with his legs slung over the ladder of his bunk. Pangborn was still sniggering in the dim light, and Janek cast one last concerned glance at Magnus before climbing back into bed.Fedir was somehow snoring, having slept through the whole thing, and even as Pangborn laid back down, the bunk bed creaking violently, he didn’t awake. Magnus lay with his eyes open, wand clutched in his hand, until the dormitory was silent again.He wouldn’t be getting any sleep here tonight.Pangborn had taken a dislike to him almost instantly, but Magnus was pretty sure the recent escalation was retaliation for a remark he'd made at the weekend. He'd spent the whole day freaking out over the quidditch team's trip to Hogwarts, so when he’d overheard Pangborn complaining affirmative action had cost him his spot on the team, he hadn’t hesitated to remind him he only had himself to blame. After all, if Pangborn had cooperated, Izzy wouldn’t have left to get Lidia.There'd been a few sniggers at that and Pangborn had been embarrassed – apparently embarrassed enough to wake Magnus up in the middle of the night with a jet of water to the face. It was (un)lucky coincidence drowning was Magnus' worst nightmare.When he was sure that Pangborn and Janek had fallen back asleep, Magnus sat up, pulled on a jumper and slippers and crept out of the dormitory. It was 3 o'clock in the morning, so the common room was dark, illuminated only by the light of the moon.If he was lucky he could probably get a few hours of sleep curled up on a sofa before the rest of the school awoke. There was no way of hiding, though, and if anyone saw him they’d be sure to ask questions, which didn’t bode well for his plan to stay under the radar.There was one way he could nap undisturbed, but not somewhere as open as this.He trod softly across the common room, peering down the west corridor, which ran along the inside of the castle past the training room. The senior girls' dormitories were somewhere down here, but he’d seen the odd boy wander down without any alarms going off, so there must be something else as well.He passed the training room, smiling as he saw his and Alek’s names against the three o'clock slot on Tuesday, and then hesitated as he came to an open archway. The room was dark, filled with empty beds and screens, and Magnus studied the salves and potions stored by the desk, he realised it must be the infirmary.He might have looked closer if a large Persian Blue cat hadn't darted out of the shadows, glaring at him with luminous yellow eyes.“Alright, alright,” he whispered, although he wasn’t sure if he was trying to calm the cat or himself.He moved on from the infirmary's watchful guardian, continuing to the end of the corridor, where there were two archways – one continuing forward, the other turning left back toward the east wing.He took a step forward, and then jumped as a pale figure with long silvery blonde hair swept out in front him.“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”He nearly yelled, and then realised it was only a ghost.“Why?”“Well for one I’d have to sound the alarm, and for another it would be most improper – those are the girls' rooms.”She moved a little further back, and her ghostly petticoats rustled.“How about there?”The ghost eyed him suspiciously.“Nobody goes down there much, not since... hey!”Magnus missed the end of her sentence as turned into the lefthand corridor, sighing in relief as he saw it was empty. One wall was covered in paintings, including a few portraits who were thankfully asleep, and the other had windows spaced at even intervals overlooking the courtyard below. The corridor ended with a flight of stairs, although if the ghost was right, they led nowhere important.It was risky, but he was exhausted, and he’d only stay a few hours. He ducked out of sight of the windows and shifted, before jumping back up onto the farthest windowsill, curling up and drifting into an uneasy sleep.He was woken by the sounds of girls heading down to breakfast, and was instantly alarmed. He must have overslept, which was unusual – he never slept well in his other form. He dropped down from the windowsill and stretched, getting his bearings. It was too dangerous to shift back here – there was constant foot traffic past the end of the corridor, and if anyone saw, Vulchanova would kill him. The only way was out.He wove through the castle, back the way he’d come, down the grand staircase, through the courtyard and out the East door. If anyone noticed him, they took him for another student's pet, so he drew no attention other than a distrustful hiss from the Persian Blue as he passed the infirmary.The lake shore was empty this time of morning, but he still had to get away from view of the main castle. It was only at the far side of the harbour, in the shadow of the great ship, that he shifted back, shivering as the cold made quick work of his flannel pyjamas. As he walked back along the wooden pier, hands tucked under his armpits, he saw a lone figure rowing out into the lake – Luke, or Farkas as the rest of the school knew him. He watched, curious, as the boat reached the middle, and then stilled.Suddenly, the boat seemed to rock, and Magnus could have sworn he saw a second figure appear. He squinted, trying to make it out, but it was so far away he couldn’t be certain. He might have stayed longer to see if they came back to shore, but his teeth were already chattering and he was desperate for caffeine.It wasn’t unheard of for people to come down to breakfast in pyjamas, so he didn’t get too many looks, although Klara raised an eyebrow at his slippers, which were pink with flamingos on.“Rough night?”Janek sat down next to her, helping himself to a bagel and throwing one to Magnus.“You could say that...” Janek began. Magnus gave him a look, and infinitesimally shook his head. “...Fedir snores like a chainsaw,” he finished. Klara seemed none the wiser.
Magnus filled a mug with steaming coffee, and wrapped his frozen hands around it.“Klara, do you why Luke was taking the boat out?”Janek raised an eyebrow.“Early morning walk?”Magnus shrugged, and Klara swallowed her mouthful of juice.“He uses it to pick up visitors from Ydrys sometimes.”Magnus frowned – he could have sworn the boat didn’t go all the way to Ydrys – but before he could ask any further questions their conversation was interrupted by Professor MacMillan.“Magnus.”“Morning Professor.”He smiled up at her, a little confused. MacMillan was friendly enough, but she hadn’t really spoken to him much outside the classroom.“Percy– Professor Weasley is in a meeting this morning with the headmistress, but he was wondering if you could meet him before lunch?”Magnus inhaled sharply. This was it, then.He agreed to meet Weasley at 11, excusing himself to go get changed into his uniform without finishing breakfast. In martial magic, he was paired with Klara, but after she bested him three times in a row they gave up. Magnus was clearly too distracted for sparring, so they contented themselves with watching the others in silence. Klara didn’t ask questions and Magnus didn’t volunteer any information.By the time he made it to the history of magic classroom, having left a concerned Alek behind in runes, his lack of sleep was catching up with him and his nerves were shot.“Magnus, have a seat,” Weasley said, glancing up from his desk.“This is about the trip to Hogwarts, right?”Percy sighed, setting aside the papers he was marking.“I’m sorry I didn’t warn you about that – I was waiting for some details to be ironed out.”“What details?”“Vulchanova and I met with Madame Maxime and McGonagall today...”“McGonagall's here?”“Yes, but–”“Can I see her?”Weasley looked at him in pity, and if Magnus had been less strung out he might have felt embarrassed.“She’s already left, Magnus, she didn’t want to disturb your lessons.”Magnus lowered his gaze. He was pretty sure if McGonagall had wanted to see him, she’d have pulled him from lessons without a second thought, but it was nice of Percy to cover.“We agreed that the seventh years from all three schools would travel with their respective quidditch teams, to encourage interscholastic networking–”“I’m going with them?”Weasley nodded and Magnus' stomach dropped. That was so much worse.“Of course there are certain arrangements that have to be made...”Magnus interrupted him, his mind already whirring.“There’s no way it won’t come out, you know that right?“If you’re talking about...”“The whole school was at the house feast, Camille made quite sure of that.”“They won’t remember it, trust me,” Weasley said, looking a little uncomfortable.Magnus wasn’t convinced. “Right, because dark magic and student animagi make for just another Friday night at Hogwarts.”“Actually, you’re closer than you think.” Weasley took of his glasses to clean them. “You didn’t speak to anyone after the feast, did you?”Magnus shook his head.“Just McGonagall, she kept me away from everyone until the Ministry arrived.”He hadn’t said goodbye to anyone, not even his friends. Weasley frowned, seeming troubled, but continued all the same.“Once Flitwick and McGonagall realised what had happened they called in a few favours from those of us they trust at the ministry. We got there before the official response, and helped obliviate all the students... not too much, just so they’d forget Camille's speech and everything after.”“What?” Magnus stared at him aghast. A memory charm of that scale was practically unheard of – well, on wizards at least. “Why didn’t you tell me?”Weasley sighed.“It wasn’t exactly legal Magnus, and we weren't sure it would work, but Flitwick seems to think it’s holding up.”“I don’t understand... why would they do that for me?”Weasley looked at him for a moment, and Magnus could tell he was working out how much to say.“It wasn’t just for you, Magnus, though don’t for a moment think it didn’t help in your trial. It was for McGonagall as well.”He wasn’t any less confused.“This isn’t the first time a student under McGonagall's care has become an animagus, or the second or third for that matter. We kept the trial under wraps, but if word got out, there are certain parents who would love to make life difficult for her.”“But McGonagall had nothing to do with it...”“You know that and I know that, but with her being registered as an animagus herself, and especially after Dumbledore's Army, people would talk.”Magnus nodded woodenly.“So I’m going then?”“Yes.”Weasley explained a little more about the fail-safes Flitwick had in place – a taboo on the word ‘animagus' and Percy on hand to help him obliviate as necessary – but most of it washed over Magnus in a haze.He was going
back to Hogwarts. He'd see the castle again, and the grounds, and even Raphael.“One more thing.” The sudden change in Weasley's voice brought him back to attention. “It's the first Ydrys weekend on Saturday, so Vulchanova asked me as your guardian whether I'd give you permission to go.”Magnus looked up, already knowing from Weasley's tone what his answer had been.“You said no.”“I consulted with Au– Professor MacMillan, and we agreed that Ydrys is something you should work towards. Once you’ve gained our trust, we can talk again.”Magnus nodded in silence and stood up. It made no difference to him – it wasn’t as if he’d already made plans, and he doubted Ydrys had anything he hadn’t seen before. Still, he wished Percy would take this guardianship a little less seriously.“Nice to see you’re co-parenting now.”“That’s quite enough Magnus...”Weasley's voice faded as Magnus left the classroom, keen to escape another lecture.
He should have been relieved that his secret was still safe, but there was at least one person still at Hogwarts that was in the know before the house feast, not to mention how many of her sycophants Camille had run her mouth to.When Vulchanova announced the seventh years would be accompanying the quidditch team to Hogwarts at dinner, he could barely bring himself to return Izzy and Klara's enthusiasm.“This so great, you can finally meet... well, re-meet Simon!” Klara beamed, while Izzy was excitedly telling Janek about the flying carriage she’d seen out the window during potions.Only Alek seemed to notice he was less than exuberant, but they didn’t have a chance to speak alone until their tutoring session the following day. Thankfully Alek had moved on from trying to break his wrist – this week he was trying to teach Magnus how to non-verbally shield.“It helps if you throw up your spare arm as a barrier – that way the magic has a signal, even if it’s not the word protego.”Magnus tried again, throwing up his left arm as Alek instructed, but however hard he tried he couldn’t produce the same iridescent shield Alek had.“Can we take a break?”He expected Alek to say ‘I told you so,’ maybe even to insist on going back to the basics. What he hadn’t expected was for Alek to join him on the desk he was sat on.“Don’t worry, it takes a while to get the hang of.”Magnus tried again, unsuccessfully, and then chucked his wand across the room in frustration.“Why are you being so nice to me?”“You know it’s actually more difficult without a focus...”“Aleksandr.” He nudged Alek's knee with his own, and was rewarded with a faint blush.Alek bit his lip.“You looked sad, yesterday, when Vulchanova made the announcement.”“I already knew.”Alek nudged him back. “You know what I mean, aren’t you happy you get to see your friends?”“Most of my friends have left,” he said, flashing a wry smile. “I mean I still know people in Ravenclaw, but–”“You were in Ravenclaw?”Magnus was mildly offended at the disbelief on his face.“Is that such a surprise?”Alek flushed again, suddenly stammering.“No, I mean, well, actually yes... you don’t seem the type.”“Valuing knowledge doesn’t mean you can't have any fun, you know.” He arched an eyebrow at Alek, who seemed suitably embarrassed. “But you’re right in a way - I never really fit in. I suppose that’s why I made friends in the year above.”“And they were less, Ravenclaw?”“If by that you mean less boring, then yes, but it was more than that – I was the Ravenclaw who liked a party, Cat was the Hufflepuff with a sharp tongue, and Ragnor was the grouchy Gryffindor.”He smiled fondly, and found Alek was watching him, his face indecipherable.“You must miss them.”“I do. They're in Peru at the moment, working on a dragonpox cure, but I got a letter from Ragnor earlier.”“...from Peru?”“Yeah, the owl wasn’t too impressed,” he grinned, remembering the way it had backed away spreading its wings in alarm when he’d gone to check his pigeon hole.“I can’t believe you sent a school owl to Peru,” Alek said, struggling not to laugh. “If you write him back, borrow mine – I’ve got an eagle owl and I only ever write to Aline.”Magnus ducked his eyes.“Aline would be your–”“Cousin,” Alek said, a little too quickly, and Magnus hid a smile.Alek stood up suddenly, as if he hadn't quite realised how close they were.“We should get back to shield spells.”“Aleksandr, I–” he broke off, sighing again. “I don't think I'm going to get it like this – I don’t understand the theory.”“That’s because there isn’t any, or at least no more than you already know.”Alek turned to face him. “Wands and words aren't what cast the spell – they're only tools to help us channel what’s here.” He reached out a hand to tap Magnus' chest, his hair falling into his eyes as he leant forward. “You just have to remember the feeling of casting the spell, and try and recreate that without actually saying the word.”“And it works for any spell?”“Theoretically...”Alek trailed off as Magnus held out a hand in to one side, closed his eyes, and thought ‘accio’ as hard as he could.There was a sharp thwack as his wand hit his hand, and he laughed in delight.Alek looked impressed, although he didn't say anything.By the end of the hour, Magnus could throw a shield up without even thinking, although his tutor was keen not to let that go to his head.“It’s one spell Magnus, we’ve still got stunning, hovering, speed and strength to go, and that’s only the basics.”“Two spells, thank you very much.”Alek snorted. “I’d like to see you use accio in a duel.”“That’s your problem you know, you have no imagination.” Alek rolled his eyes but Magnus kept going. “I’m serious, give me a wand and let me fight you – I guarantee you’ll be surprised.”“Maybe next week,” Alek said, a smile playing on his lips as he picked up his book bag. “Oh and I was serious about the owl – she’s in the owlery, answers to Jessica.”Magnus raised his eyebrows at that, and Alek blushed.“It’s a long story.”He went to collect his own belongings, unfolding the letter he hadn’t had time to read earlier.
Dear Magnus,
Why must you insist on writing to me about your infatuations, and – really – the head boy? I thought you were above such boring clichés.
Peru is hot, but we persuaded a local guide to show us to some Vipertooth nests where I collected some fungi. The idea is that we can examine the fungi’s natural defence to the virus and then replicate that for humans. Even if we can’t get a cure, Catarina thinks we could get a viable vaccine.
This, by the way, is actually interesting news – the kind I expect to get in return. Raphael never writes to me about boys, or girls, and his letters are far more interesting for it. Take note.
Love,
Ragnor
P.S. We tried to send chocolate, but the owl refused...
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
On Saturday morning, Magnus woke up early as he had done every day that week, wand still clutched in his hand. Pangborn hadn’t woken him with any more jets of water, but it was difficult to feel safe enough to sleep despite Janek’s best efforts.Weekend breakfasts were usually sparsely attended, with most students preferring to lie in, but on the first Ydrys weekend of term there were plenty looking for an early start. Magnus had done his best to avoid Izzy and Klara’s planning, but eventually he’d had to confess he didn’t have permission to join them, much to their dismay.“We should petition Weasley or something – what reason could he even have for not letting you go?” Izzy asked, blind to Janek’s raised eyebrows which Magnus was pointedly ignoring.“Oh yeah, what reason could he possibly have to distrust someone who got expelled from their last school, huh, Magnus?” he asked, mischief in his eyes.“My lips are sealed.”Izzy, outrage abated, rolled her eyes.“You know we’re going to get it out of the Hogwarts lot next month right?”Magnus shrugged, a smirk hiding his nerves. There was no way this would end well.Izzy and Janek moved on to talking about quidditch then, and Klara turned to him in the lull.“Sorry you can’t come – what are you going to do instead?”“Oh I don’t know, probably read my fourth book of the week…”He trailed off as he realised Klara’s attention was no longer on him. Instead, she was looking to her left, frowning as she listened into the conversation of some fifth year girls next to her.“…sorry, just a minute,” she said, casting an apologetic glance back to Magnus. “That’s bullshit Vivian, and you know it,” she said, interrupting the blonde girl who was speaking.“What?”“I said that’s bullshit – she’s not a squib, so stop telling everyone that.”“Well I guess you would know, seeing as you might as well be one yourself,” replied the blonde, her lips twisting into a sneer.“Do you even think about what you say?” Klara laughed, shaking her head. “I grew up mundane, Vivian, if I was a squib there’d be none the wiser and I’d have stayed in Hungary.”Magnus snorted and the blonde scowled.“Yeah well, everyone knows she only got the job because she was sleeping with…”“I said, drop it.”Magnus had no idea who she was protecting, but Klara looked like she’d cut a bitch.One of the girls Vivian had been talking to giggled.“What are you going to do, curse her?”Klara blushed, and Magnus saw fit to intervene.“Klara might not know any of the good curses yet, but trust me I do,” he said coolly, turning to look at the fifth years who looked suitably mollified. “Why do you think I got expelled from Hogwarts?”Vivian and her pals seemed to recognise the truth in that – not that there was any – and retreated back upstairs as Klara gave him a smile.“You didn’t have to do that.” Magnus shrugged, casting a glace to Janek and Izzy who seemed to have missed the altercation all together. If people were going to gossip about why he got expelled, he might as well use that to his advantage.“So, what did you say your plan for today was?” Klara asked, picking up her coffee.“I don’t really have one,” Magnus admitted, and Klara gave him a sympathetic look.“You know, Luke’s away
for the weekend… if you were to take the boat out, maybe even row over to Ydrys, I doubt anyone would notice.”Magnus smiled at her fondly. “That is a terrible idea, and we both know it – aren’t there some teachers who stay in Ydrys?”Klara nodded reluctantly, and Magnus hesitated – he wouldn’t have asked normally, but seeing as she’d already brought it up, there was a theory he wanted to try out.“In the interests of avoiding expulsion, I think I’ll sit Ydrys out, but if you’re sure it’s ok, do you think I could take the boat out on the lake?”Klara agreed readily, letting him know where the oars were kept.After breakfast, Magnus found his way to the library, the fifth years’ conversation having renewed his interest in how squibs were treated in Eastern Europe. He’d grown familiar with the librarian, Ms Gray, so he decided to ask her for her recommendations.“Who told you to ask me about squibs?” she asked, her grey eyes flashing with anger.“No one,” Magnus replied, thrown off-guard by her reaction. “I just– it seems like there’s a different history here to in the UK, and I thought…”“I grew up in the states, Magnus,” she said, still frowning, and Magnus kicked himself for not noticing her accent before. It was soft, but certainly not the mechanical pronunciation of the filter.“I didn’t mean anything by it – I swear – it’s just Klara reminded me of it just now, and I thought you might be able to recommend something to read?”“Klara Szoke?”Magnus nodded, and the librarian visibly softened.“Very well then, let me have a look…”She stood up from behind her desk and Magnus followed her to the books on magical history, fidgeting as she picked out a book in Cyrillic whose title shifted to read ‘Squibs: Our Faithful Servants.’ He raised his eyebrows and Ms Gray looked amused.“It’s very much of its time, but it’ll give you a good idea of their role in society.”He thanked her and tucked the book under his arm, meaning to run it up to his room. As he left the library, he heard a rhythmic thunk coming from the courtyard, and looked through an archway to see Alek shooting arrow after arrow at a target.He watched for a while, his lips quirking in amusement as he saw the head boy step forward to retrieve his arrows from the target.“There’s a spell for that you know.”Alek turned around, looking a little irritated, and began shooting again without replying. He was good – all five arrows hit within the bulls eye – and even in plain black jeans and a faded sweater he made a pretty picture.After he'd reset for a second time, he spoke to Magnus, without looking at him.“Shouldn’t you be heading to Ydrys?”“Shouldn’t you?”Alek grunted, letting his arrow fly.“Not my thing.”Magnus raised an eyebrow at that.“What, fun or Ydrys?”Alek sighed, lowering his bow.“I’m trying to practice here.”“I’m not sure you need it...”Magnus nodded at the target, where Alek's second arrow had split his first.“You can always improve.”Magnus groaned dramatically. “Would it kill you to cut loose once in a while?”Alek raised his bow to resume shooting, and Magnus waited patiently. After another two arrows, Alek cracked.“Why aren’t you in Ydrys with the others?”“Weasley thinks I haven’t earned it yet.”To Magnus' surprise Alek let out a huff of laughter.“That's funny, I–” He shook his head, and Magnus frowned. Surely Alek couldn’t think he didn’t deserve to go to Ydrys either.“You're not going to train all day, are you?”“No,” Alek said curtly, and Magnus had a moment of relief before he followed that up with “I was going to spend the afternoon in the library.”“Aleksandr… that can't be how you want to spend your Saturday.”Alek left to retrieve his arrows – another perfect score – and then reset for what must be the fourth or fifth time. When he replied, it was soft enough that Magnus almost missed it.“We can't always have what we want.”“Alek...” Magnus reached out a hand to the head boys arm, and faltered as Alek flinched away, his eyes darting around the courtyard.He withdrew his hand, kicking himself for forgetting they were in public, and moved to put some distance between them.“If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?”For a moment, he thought Alek wasn’t going to reply – the head boy was once again letting arrows loose at the target, not looking his way.“I’d get out of here, just not to Ydrys.”“Where to?”“Somewhere no one knew me.”Magnus felt a tightness in his chest, and suddenly resolved to include Alek in his experiment.“Look, I don’t know if I can deliver on that exactly, but Klara said I could take Farkas' boat out later – do you want to come with me?”Alek turned his head to look at him, the arrow he was loosing hitting the outer rim of the target.“Just us?”Magnus shrugged as if to say ‘why not'. With anybody else, he’d make his intentions clear, but he had a feeling Alek might scarper if somebody actually used the word ‘date'.“Ok,” Alek said, his own answer seeming to surprise him a little, and Magnus grinned in reply.Half an hour later, Magnus had stashed the book upstairs and Alek had retrieved a fleece lined aviator jacket that was significantly nicer than everything else he was wearing.“Present from Izzy,” he murmured as Magnus reached out to brush his hand against the soft leather admiringly. He didn’t flinch this time, although that could be because the senior boys’ corridor was deserted, everyone else having left for Ydrys.They kept a companionable silence as they walked out to the cabin and retrieved the oars. Along the prow, ‘Jozefina’ was painted in gold, and Magnus wondered if it was named after somebody. Before he lifted the anchor into the boat, he bent down and ran his hand over the curved bottom. As he'd hoped, the metal rings he was wearing stuck fast against the surface, and he could only release them by pulling sharply sideways.Alek pushed the boat off the shore, splashing through the shallows as he ran to jump in, and Magnus pulled on the oars to take them out to the middle of the lake, waving off Alek’s offer to take over. Once they were roughly in the centre – about where Magnus had seen Luke stop the boat on Monday – he lowered the anchor slowly, smiling with satisfaction as he felt a tug and the rope was pulled taut. Deep below them, at the bottom of the lake, a magnet was holding the anchor fast.“So what now?”He looked up at Alek. The line of tension that had been in his shoulders in the courtyard had eased a little, but his eyes were still troubled as he gazed out over the lake.He closed his eyes briefly to test the wards – like Hogwarts, it was impossible to apparate in or out of the Institute, and Izzy had told him Ydrys, unlike Hogsmeade, was subject to the same restrictions. Here though, at the deepest point of the lake – if Magnus were to guess, exactly half-way between the two – there was definitely a little give.“Do you trust me?”He stood up, rocking the boat a little, and Alek’s eyes widened in alarm.“Magnus, if you want to go swimming, that's a really bad idea...”Magnus chuckled and held out a hand, the other wrapped around his wand. After a moment's hesitation, Alek took it.The moment they were touching, Magnus closed his eyes and concentrated fiercely. There was a crack, and then the drift of the boat was replaced with firm ground and the bustle of a crowd around them.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Ty appariroval?”Magnus cracked an eye and checked their limbs, crowing with delight when he found both of them were in one piece. Alek switched to English, his voice urgent with anxiety“Where are we?” he asked, looking around the vast candle-lit cavern they were standing in apprehensively.Magnus threw out an arm with theatrical flourish.“Bienvenue aux catacombes de Montmartre!”His elation was slightly dampened when Alek yanked him in between two of the wooden stalls, out of sight from the main throughway.“We’re in Paris!?”Magnus blinked.“You said you wanted to go somewhere no one knew you, I–”“Well you missed the mark, not to mention you apparated the two of us across several countries–” Alek cut himself off, paling a little as he realised the implications. “Please tell me you've done that before.”“Well, Madrid to Paris and I've never brought someone with me, but, that's nearly as far?”“We could have died,” Alek hissed and Magnus shook his arm free from where he was still gripping it.“Fine, I’ll take you back if you want.”“No–” Alek took a step back, sighing heavily. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how you pulled this off and I don’t think I want to, but it was a nice idea.”He was still scanning the crowd anxiously, and Magnus remembered his previous words.“Who are you worried will see you?”“Malachi Dieudonné, a few other people I’ve met at the bureau… anyone who knows my parents really.”Magnus frowned. He hadn’t realised Alek would know anyone in Paris, but in hindsight he shouldn’t have assumed otherwise – Dieudonné was the French ambassador to the CLAVE.“Your parents don’t know any muggles, right?”Alek shook his head, a slow smile spreading across his face.Magnus asked Alek to wait by the exit while he ‘exchanged some money’ – in reality he was selling a necklace he’d brought with him from his trunk. He’d burned through most of his savings in the summer, and he had no real way to make money under Vulchanova’s watch, but he wanted to treat Alek all the same.Hypatia Vex eyed the necklace he’d brought suspiciously, but after Magnus explained it was enchanted to glow in the presence of dark magic, she seemed more interested.“It’s good work,” said the witch, tapping the ruby with her wand to examine the enchantment, “your own?”Magnus nodded, unusually taciturn. Camille had returned the necklace toward the end of their relationship, claiming it was malfunctioning, but in hindsight she was probably trying to conceal just how much dark magic she was experimenting with.“Bring me anything else you have that’s similar,” she said brusquely, counting out a stack of gold pieces with delicate fingers. “The Parisian elite will pay good money for trinkets they think will protect their daughters.”He grin was wolfish as she handed over the galleons and Magnus wondered briefly what exactly those daughters needed protecting from, before heading to the vaults on the far side of the cavern to exchange his profit for euros.He caught up with Alek at the bottom of the staircase that led up to Montmartre cemetry. From experience, he knew it emerged in an unremarkable storage room that looked empty to muggles. It was the largest of the three entrances to the catacombs – the others being a narrow tunnel that led to a shop on Boulevard de Clichy and a spiral staircase hidden by a bronze statue somewhere further up the hill. From the looks of it Alek had been skulking in the shadows to avoid the passing traffic.Once they were topside, Magnus led them through the cobbled streets to a café, where they picked up coffees and a selection of pastries. Autumn in Paris was cold, clear, and bright, and he was eager to show Alek the basilica, so they pressed on up the hill. Alek’s eyes grew satisfying wide when he saw the view from the top of the steps, and as they tucked in to the pain au chocolats and almond croissants Magnus couldn’t help but watch him, enraptured by every minute expression that flitted across his face. He only remembered his own rapidly cooling latte when Alek met his eyes as he licked the last of the almond paste off his fingers and flushed bright red.“Have you been to Paris before then?” Magnus asked lightly, averting his gaze to the steps below where street hawkers were trying to sell bracelets and keyrings to the tourists.
“A few times,” Alek answered, “but we never saw much beyond the guest quarters at the ministry and the catacombs.”“You’ve never seen Notre Dame, or the Louvre or the Eiffel tower?Alek wrinkled his nose, pointing to the city below. “I don’t know what the
first two are, but the Eiffel tower’s right there.”Magnus gave him a look, but to be fair he was technically correct. In any case, the view they currently had was both free and probably better than what they’d see after waiting in a queue for an hour to go up."What's the Louvre?"Now that Alek was more relaxed, Magnus felt less guilty for enjoying his accent, which was frankly adorable.
“Only the best art gallery in the world, Aleksandr… come on, we're going to see it – if we sit here any longer I’m going to freeze to death.”Alek looked pointedly at Magnus’ denim jacket, which was artfully ripped and held together with safety pins, but chose not to say anything.By the time they’d taken the metro to Place de la Concorde – Magnus having to stop Alek from nearly decapitating a boy who’d tried to pick his pocket on the way – it was nearing midday, and the Jardins des Tuileries was full of sightseers and school trips. Magnus smiled to himself when he realised Alek was eavesdropping on a tour that was being given in French.“How many languages do you speak?”“Mundane ones? English, Russian, French, a bit of German and I can get by in Italian too… we had a lot of tutors growing up.”Magnus tried not to give away how attractive he found that – he’d always been a sucker for an accent, but anyone who could speak multiple languages was somehow instantly twenty percent hotter. And Alek was pretty hot to begin with.“What about you?”Alek was looking at him contemplatively, and Magnus remembered he’d let it slip a while back that English wasn’t his native tongue. He paused, carefully adjusting what he was about to say so it wouldn’t reveal too much.“My mum spoke mostly Dutch to me, but we moved to Spain when I was little so I speak Spanish too. After that English, French, and German is close enough to Dutch that I can understand what’s going on, although I’m not very good at speaking it myself.”Alek nodded, and then hesitated. “Your mum…”“…died when I was little,” Magnus said with a quick smile to show he wasn’t upset, “hence the guardian.”He didn’t mention that McGonagall had been his guardian for years before she’d stood down, and that at seventeen he didn’t really need a guardian so much as had been required to have one by the school board. If Alek had been tempted to ask about his father, he didn’t.They spent the next hour walking around the Louvre. Alek appeared to be severely underwhelmed by the Mona Lisa – well, what they could see of it from the back of a crowded room – but he was impressed by the gilded ceiling in the Galerie d’Apollon and Magnus didn’t miss the way his gaze lingered on some of the more explicit Greek vases.When they grew tired and hungry they left to have a late lunch across the river – a tapas bar that transformed into a dancefloor every night and was a favourite of the queer population of Paris. The food was nice enough, but it was the atmosphere and the view of the Seine that made la Rosa Bonheur the place to be.Magnus turned on the charm and managed to persuade the host to turn over a table by the window in record time, much to the consternation of Alek, who was wholly unconvinced there hadn’t been magical help. After they’d polished off a portion of patatas bravas, a quiche and a salad between them, Magnus sat back, sipping on his lemonade.“What do you want to do next?”Alek skewered a stray leaf with his fork, looking a little uncomfortable.“I don’t know…” He looked up at Magnus, chewing his lip, and Magnus swallowed, heroically keeping his eyes from dipping down.“Can we do something you like? It can’t be much fun dragging me around.”“Trust me, you’re plenty of fun.”Magnus winked and Alek flushed again, looking down at his plate.“You know what I mean… what would you do if I weren’t here?”“Oh.”Magnus put his glass down, trying not to appear hurt. It wasn’t unreasonable that Alek might want to spend some time by himself – after all, as much as he’d like it to be, this wasn’t a date. They could always meet up later for Magnus to apparate them back, since Alek was a lot less sure about travelling that far.“I guess I could go shopping – the Galeries Lafayette are on the side of the river.”“Is there something you need?”Magnus grinned despite his disappointment.“I’m always in need of clothes Aleksandr, but no not in particular.”He took a breath, bracing himself for Alek to ditch him, and was pleasantly surprised when he was met with a shy smile instead.“Let’s do that then.”Magnus felt a familiar tightness in his chest, and hastily asked for the bill so he didn’t sit there smiling sappily back instead. Alek frowned when he withdrew another crisp twenty euro note from his wallet, and Magnus raised his eyebrows.“If you’d told me where we were going, I’d have brought some money you know.”“My treat, I insist,” replied Magnus firmly.Part of him wanted to believe Alek saw this as a date as well, hopeless as that seemed. Someone far less optimistic than him – Ragnor, for instance – might remind him Alek hadn’t exactly returned his advances, but he hadn’t been unreceptive to them either, especially when they were alone.He was distracted as they walked back across the bridge, wondering whether Alek was having the same internal crisis he was. A few minutes later, he nearly stepped out in front of a car at a crossing, and it was only Alek grabbing at his arm that stopped him being run over. He could have been imagining it, but he was almost certain the way their fingers brushed together as Alek dropped his arm wasn’t an accident.“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head to try and clear the thoughts.“Are you ok?”He looked at Alek, and smiled gently as he saw the boy was genuinely concerned.“Yeah, I’m good.”When they reached the department store, Magnus was too giddy to spend any more time agonising over whether or not this was a date. He bypassed the jewellery and watches on the ground floor, making straight for the escalators and grinning when he saw Alek’s face.It had to be a little overwhelming, but Alek didn’t seem to mind following him around the boutiques and listening to his running commentary on muggle fashion. Alek watched him carefully as Magnus ran his fingers longingly against a silk dressing gown that was on the corner of a women’s boutique, admiring the colourful print.“Would you really wear that?” Alek asked somewhat disbelievingly, and Magnus wiggled his eyebrows.“Not for long.”He fought back a smirk at the way the Alek flushed and hastily averted his eyes. It really was too easy.When he stopped to try on a pearl grey Ralph Lauren peacoat, turning to ask for a second opinion, he was only mildly surprised to find Alek was checking him out, his gaze unmistakably lingering on the way his shoulders filled out the tailoring and the slip of skin where his thin cashmere sweater had ridden up.“What do you think?”He pulled the sweater down, and Alek’s cheeks tinged pink.“It’s in one piece, which is more than I can say for this,” he nodded at the denim jacket Magnus had given him to hold. “Looks like it’s warm too.”Magnus smirked, his confidence buoyed by Alek’s blush, which had only grown stronger.“I meant, how do I look?”Alek let out a huff of disbelief, shaking his head.“What’s the point in asking that… you already know.”Magnus didn’t let up, pressing his tongue between his teeth as his smile grew.“I’m not sure I do.”“Why do you need me to say it?”Alek sounded disinterested, if a little defensive, but his eyes kept flicking to the shop assistant nearby. Magnus decided to let him off the hook – he didn’t want to break the poor boy.“Come on,” he said, shrugging the coat off and hanging it back up. “I’m not going to get it anyway.”“Why not?”Magnus elected not to tell him the coat cost easily ten times what he’d sold the necklace for.“We’re window shopping darling, that’s part of the fun.”The endearment tripped off his tongue before he could stop it, but Alek didn’t seem to mind, holding out his jacket without commenting.They got the metro back to Montmartre in silence, this time aiming for the shop on Rue de Clichy. Theoretically Magnus could apparate from anywhere in the city, but it would be easier if it was the same route he’d done before. As they walked down the street, Alek kept opening his mouth as if to say something, and then shutting it and breathing out sharply through his nose instead.The fourth time it happened Magnus gave up, grabbing him by the hand and tugging him into a side alley.“Ok, get it out.”“What?”“Whatever you want to say, just say it,” Magnus said, trying not to sound annoyed.“Of course you looked good in that jacket,” Alek blurted out, eyes widening as he realised what he’d said.Magnus tilted his head in confusion.“Why of course?”“You always look good Magnus, I just don’t know why you’d need to hear it from me…” he trailed off as Magnus took a step closer.“Well I know I think I look good – I have eyes…” Alek rolled his eyes. “I just didn’t know you agreed.”Alek blinked, as if he’d never considered that as a possibility. Magnus leant forward slowly, so Alek had the option to move away. He heard a hitch of breath as Alek stopped breathing. They were so close he could see every detail of his face, right down to the scar above his right eyebrow and the individual eyelashes that framed his ridiculously blue eyes.Alek’s gaze darted down to his lips, and Magnus was about to close the distance between them when there was a loud wolf whistle, and Alek jumped away from him.“Mais putain regarde, il a péfli!"Magnus whipped his head to the end of the alley, where three muggle men were laughing among themselves.
“Arête Jérème, tu les trouve pas mignon hein?"
“Ya rien mignon là-bas, que les pédés…“
Magnus wasn’t sure how much Alek was understanding, but he was certain he recognised the slur from the way he stiffened up.“Vas te faire chier,” he snapped, prompting more laughter and another whistle.“Attention, elle est fachée!"
“C’est l’autre qui est l’enculé alors?"
“Mais non, c’est lui – il fait bien plus tapette hein…"
Magnus’ hand was already on his wand and he opened his mouth, about to tell them exactly where they could put their ignorant stereotypes, but Alek was already pulling him around the corner, back to the main road.“Let go,” he said, ripping his hand away, but Alek held on, walking down the street.“Stop making it worse, Magnus.”“I’m not– did you hear–” He exhaled forcefully, and tried again. “Aleksandr, I…”“I don’t care, okay,” Alek interrupted, his face stony. “Let’s just get back.”They entered Video Palace in silence. Magnus had forgotten the entrance was in a sex shop, but Alek remained inscrutable and Magnus didn’t make any jokes, which somehow made the whole thing more awkward. As soon as they’d landed in the boat, Alek dropped his hand like it was burning him, cast a muttered relashio on the anchor, and then rowed them back to shore.As they were pulling the boat up to the cabin, Magnus tried to apologise but Alek only responded with a terse “it’s fine,” and left him to put the oars away by himself.It was very much not fine.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Dear Catarina,
Greetings from frozen north – I hope Ragnor hasn’t driven you mad yet, and both of you are still intact and unscorched by any returning dragons (whose idea was it to go searching for nests? I know it’s all the for the greater good and bla bla bla but nests???)
I may have done a stupid thing. And by that I mean I took aforementioned pretty (head) boy to Paris on a date an entirely platonic outing and then nearly kissed him. Which, normally I’d count as a win, but he’s barely spoken to me since. I don’t know what’s going on – his dad’s a piece of work and if he is queer he’s so far in the closet he might as well be having tea with Mr Tumnus… but I thought we had something. And now I don’t know.
Also – side note – did I mention I have to accompany the quidditch team to Hogwarts next month??? Trying not to think about it… Flitwick says he’s done some damage control and nobody will remember the house feast, but I have doubts. Many doubts.
Counting on you for the wise and sage advice, and for crying out loud please don’t show this to Ragnor – he’ll only be rude about it.
Love,
Magnus
It was faintly ridiculous that Magnus should borrow Aleksandr’s owl to send a plea to his friends for advice on how to deal with Aleksandr himself, but Magnus didn’t want to risk sending a school owl to Peru again. In any case, the brown owl he’d sent last time seemed to have communicated to the others that he was not to be trusted, since they all fled to the far side of owlery as soon as he entered.He’d checked with Alek it was still okay, getting a grunt in reply, which was probably the most communicative Alek had been of his own volition since Paris. He at least turned up to their weekly tutoring sessions, but they’d spent the last month perfecting non-verbal spells, which unsurprisingly didn’t involve that much talking. Once or twice, Magnus had suggested they spar, but Alek had only shook his head and repeated he needed to learn the basics.He was coming to the conclusion Alek wished to forget Paris entirely, if the conversation he'd overheard after they'd got back hadn't made that abundantly clear. Professor Ledovsky, charming as ever, had demanded to know why Alek hadn’t been in the courtyard when he stopped by late Saturday morning, and Alek – the same Alek who’d been a stammering mess whenever he was near Magnus for most of September – had lied without a second thought.Magnus hadn’t meant to eavesdrop – Ledovsky had come over just as he was leaving with Fedir – but he hadn’t been able to resist pretending he'd forgotten his notes to listen to Alek's answer. Alek hadn’t been training, he’d said, because he’d been having lunch with a friend – no, not the gryaznokrovka,
the head girl, Lidia Bronowski. And if hearing that had made Magnus’ stomach pull sharply to the left, hearing Ledovsky’s response was worse.Magnus had expected him to be angry – clearly Alek’s drive to train and study all hours of the day came from some intense parental expectations – but Ledovsky seemed happy, almost relieved, that his son was dating a “nice, well-bred young woman”. Alek had protested – a touch too weakly to give Magnus any real confidence – but hadn’t corrected him. It wasn’t an unreasonable assumption – Alek and Lidia were friends, and between quidditch practice and their shared duties they spent a fair amount of time together outside of classes.A few weeks after he’d overheard Alek lie to his father, Magnus had casually asked Izzy whether there was anything going on between them. She’d shaken her head, and told him Lidia hadn’t dated anyone in school – rumours were she had a long-distance beau at Ilvermorny. He’d been pushing the limits of his feigned casual interest when he’d asked, “and Alek?” but he hadn’t expected Izzy to snort with laughter.Thankfully, it had turned out to be at Aleksandr’s expense rather than his own – apparently when Alek was in fourth year, he’d told Izzy and Janek he’d started seeing a girl from Ydrys to shut them up. It took them nearly a month to realise the ‘Jessica’ he went to visit was the owl their mum had gifted him for making the quidditch league. To date, Jessica was the only girlfriend Alek had ever had.Magnus had started giggling when he realised where the story was headed, and by the end he could barely speak for laughing so much. Eventually he’d managed to ask why there’d be a girl in Ydrys who didn’t go to school, and why she’d be called Jessica of all things, but Izzy’s only excuse was that she’d been twelve, and she hadn’t been able to go to Ydrys to see for herself.Their mirth had been quickly subdued when Alek had arrived for lunch, with Lidia close behind him. When Izzy waggled her eyebrows at him, Magnus had forced his face into a neutral expression and tried not to be hurt that Alek hadn’t come to join them. Instead, he'd watched as Alek lead Lydia to a table where Velasquez and Janek were sitting with a group of sixth years.They looked good together, sure, but Alek never looked at Lidia the way he'd looked at Magnus, he told himself – all piercing blue eyes and pinking cheeks and slightly parted lips. Except, as he'd written to Catarina, Alek wasn't looking at Magnus an awful lot these days – in fact, Magnus could count the the number of times he'd seen him outside of tutoring on one hand.Which is why, of all the people Magnus expected to see after Pangborn had drenched him with water at six am on a Tuesday, Alek was the last.Now that Janek had made his disapproval clear, Pangborn’s ‘pranks’ were limited to the rare mornings that Magnus was still asleep when Janek was showering. In spite of these limitations, this must have been the fourth or fifth time he’d awoken to a jet of ice cold water and sudden, overwhelming panic. The joke, if it had ever been a joke, was very much beginning to wear thin, especially as winter drew near and Magnus’ warming and drying charms grew ever less effective.He was pulling his sodden T-shirt over his head as he left his room in search of a hot shower when he collided with something large and solid.“Fuck... lumos.”“Magnus?”As his eyes adjusted, he realised the large and solid thing had been Alek, who looked like he was on his way down to the courtyard.“I’m going for a shower,” he blurted out, as if that explained everything.“Don’t you usually take your clothes off for those?”“Well I got half way,” he said, holding up the T-shirt as proof.To his surprise, Alek’s eyes drifted down to his bared chest, and the tips of his ears turned pink.Ok, so maybe he was still interested.Alek leant in, lowering his voice.“Does this have anything to do with Pangborn?”Magnus dropped his smirk.“What did Janek tell you?”“Nothing… just, that he was giving you a hard time, and–”“It’s fine, I’m handling it.”Alek sighed and shifted to his other foot.“Okay, but if it’s bad–”“Why do you even care?”The acid in his voice surprised even himself, and Alek looked taken aback.“He shouldn’t be treating you like that,” he murmured, his eyes cast down. “He might lay off a bit if your weren’t so…” he trailed off as he looked up and saw Magnus' face.“So what, Aleksandr – Brown? Muggleborn? Queer?”Magnus drew himself up straight, ignoring the urge to cross his arms over his bare chest, and waited for an answer.“I meant, the makeup and… everything,” Alek said, glancing down at the flamingos on his slippers, and Magnus fought the urge to roll his eyes.“Just because you’re repressed doesn’t mean I have to be too.”Alek looked panicked at that, eyes flitting over Magnus’ shoulder to where a fourth year had exited their room with a book tucked under his arm.“I am not repressed.”“Fine, you’re in denial.”Suddenly Magnus was tired. Tired, cold, and done with the conversation.He pushed past the boy into the communal showers, ignoring Alek’s protestations (wasn’t it exhausting to be in denial about being in denial?), and hung his clothes up on a hook. As he slowly thawed under the scalding water, he decided enough was enough.Aleksandr was pretty, yes. He was also kind, and clever, and very good at quidditch.But he would never look at Magnus the same way Magnus looked at him.Well, okay, he would look, Magnus amended, remembering the department store in Paris and the way Alek’s eyes had dipped down earlier, he just wouldn’t actually do anything about it.
He looked down at his chest.He wasn’t necessarily insecure about his body – certainly none of his exes had complained – but he wasn’t as ripped as Janek, or Alek, from what he’d seen through the thin school shirts. He'd always been slender. The lines of his ribs were visible when he took a deep breath and the flat plane of his stomach was bordered by jutting hipbones.
And yet, Alek had struggled to keep his eyes on his face while they were talking. He’d almost looked hungry. Magnus groaned, turning around to face the wall and hide his growing arousal from anyone who came in.He absolutely should not be this turned on just thinking about how Alek had looked at him.Especially not after Alek had been such an ass.He had more self-respect than that, surely.Maybe just this once.He shut his eyes and closed his hand around himself, blue eyes, pink cheeks and silken black hair floating through his mind.
Afterwards he cursed Aleksandr’s existence, and his own weakness.It was the lingering restlessness that drove him to challenge Alek to a duel in their tutoring session that afternoon. He hadn’t asked for a while, but there’d be something satisfying about hexing the object of his frustrations cross-eyed.He didn’t expect Alek to agree, but perhaps he was looking for a way to resolve the tension between them as much as Magnus was.“I’m not going easy on you,” Alek warned him and Magnus resisted the urge to roll his eyes. That was kind of the point.“I get a wand right?”Alek looked up from where he’d been binding his wand to his hand, confused.“Yes?”“Then you won’t need to.”Alek snorted derisively.“Just try not to get hurt.”Despite his bravado, Alek took a defensive stance as they faced each other across the room, allowing Magnus to make the first move.He began with a few hexes, both of which Alek effortlessly shielded against.
When Alek retaliated with a stunning spell, he threw himself back and to the left, dodging the flash of light just as Flitwick had taught him.“You’re ceding ground,” Alek said disapprovingly, and this time the eye roll was inevitable.“This isn’t fencing, Aleksandr, it doesn’t matter if I back away.”Alek raised an eyebrow.“Since when do you know the rules of fencing?”Okay so maybe he had started listening in Starkweather’s class, just a little bit.“Not the point. Duelling isn’t about rules, or how close you can get to your opponent, it’s about using your environment to your advantage… syrtissifors!”Magnus’ spell passed beneath the iridescent shield and Alek’s look of immense scepticism was replaced with panic as the floor beneath him turned to quicksand and he began to rapidly sink.He tried unsuccessfully to reverse the transfiguration, and then turned to Magnus, eyes wide with panic.Magnus stopped his descent with a hardening charm, leaving Alek thigh deep in the floor.“That's not
fair Magnus.”“Right, because duelling is always fair.”“You couldn’t do this outside – it’d be too much work to transfigure that much ground.”“That would be the general idea of using your environment to your advantage, yes.”Alek made an exasperated sound.“And how many battles are fought in multi-story castles?”“Well, the Battle of Hogwarts for one–”Magnus had to stop smirking to dive out the way of the stunning spell Alek sent.“In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve still got my wand.”“I know, I just also know you can’t transfigure the floor and cast a hovering charm at the same time.”“I can still do this though,” Alek said, before firing a jelly-legs jinx in Magnus’ direction.“Oh alright then,” Magnus casting a quick expelliarmus although he knew it would have no effect.Alek smirked, holding up his hand to show his binding, and then yelped and dropped his wand as Magnus took the opportunity to swiftly transfigure the leather and cloth into a red and black striped adder.“You were saying?”Magnus held out his hand and Alek’s wand sailed across the floor, leaving the head boy leaning as far away from the snake as he possibly could. Magnus took pity and snake turned back into black leather and scarlet fabric, which fluttered before settling on the ground.“Fine, you win. Will you let me go now?”“I don’t know, you look so pretty like that…”“Stop it Magnus, it’s not funny.”“Hmm.”Magnus twitched his wand and Alek sank a few more inches with a yelp.“I said stop it!” Magnus raised an eyebrow and Alek sighed in defeat. “What do you want?”“Oh for fuck's sake – I'm not blackmailing you, although…”He walked across to Alek so that the other boy was forced to crane his neck to look up at him.“...what are you offering?”Alek looked at Magnus’ crotch, which happened to be eye-level, and flushed bright red.“Oh. Shit, sorry, I didn’t mean that…”Magnus awkwardly sat on the floor as Alek desperately tried to backtrack.“I– I didn’t– you were–”“Aleksandr,” Magnus gently interrupted him. “I’m not saying I’d refuse, but I generally prefer my partners not to be under duress.”Alek looked somehow mortified and mutinous at the same time.“Like you didn’t know how it sounded.”“I thought you’d offer me chocolate, or do my essay for MacMillan, or tell me an embarrassing secret, not–”He broke off as Alek barked out a laugh.“That’s rich. You know a hell of a lot more of my secrets than I do yours.”Magnus frowned, confused. What secrets of Alek could he possibly–
oh.“Okay, how about this - I’ll answer one of your questions, if you answer one of mine.”“And then you'll let me go?""Sure."Alek gave an exaggerated sigh, his cheeks having finally returned to normal colour.“Why’d you get expelled from Hogwarts?”“Nope, sorry, vetoing that.”“You didn't say we were allowed to veto.”“You're not, but I can't answer that - Vulchanova's orders.”Alek rolled his eyes.“Fine, you go first.”Magnus paused.“Does anyone else know you’re gay?”Alek turned pale, and started stammering out a denial before realising there was no point.“My sister,” he answered eventually, his voice quiet. “She guessed after the whole… Jessica thing.”Magnus’ lips twitched at that and Alek narrowed his eyes in suspicion.He waited patiently as Alek took a while to pick his next question.
“Why’d you stop flirting with me after Paris?”Magnus’ eyes widened.
“I wasn’t flirting with you – that’s just my natural charm.”Alek made a disbelieving sound, but Magnus was distracted.Maybe Alek was right – if he’d caught Alek staring at his stomach in September, he’d probably have asked if he was enjoying the view…“Hang on, does that mean you like it?”Alek folded his arms.“Uh-uh, no follow ups.”“Oh come on,” Magnus said, laughing in disbelief.
“One question, and then you let me go, that was the deal.”“Fine then.”He conjured a thick rope from the ceiling, which landed a few inches to Alek’s right, and then threw him back his wand.“Magnus! Wait, I don’t know how to transfigure the floor…”Magnus shrugged, already heading to the door.“You’ll figure it out… oh and Alek?”Alek scowled, winding the rope around one arm.“What?”“You’ll know when I’m flirting.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Magnus shut the book with a snap, kicking his legs down off the windowsill.He'd only remembered the book Ms Gray had recommended a few days ago, but now that he’d finished it, he didn’t understand any better.In large parts of Eastern Europe, squibs had been employed by pureblood families as servants and cleaners – so far so clear. They’d even been considered ‘protectors,’ whatever that meant, but he still didn’t understand how that would affect their lifespan, or how that was related to the scarcity of muggleborns.He made his way down to the library, waving as he passed to the ghost who guarded the girls’ dormitories. Jessamine, as he'd learned her name was, had become a familiar sight now that he was spending more and more time in the abandoned corridor. She’d been distrustful at first, but he’d won her over with a few well-placed compliments on her dress. He only ever saw her in passing – she stuck close to the dormitories, and so his only company on the windowsill was a mismatched collection of distant figures in barren landscapes, old headmasters and various members of the Vulchanov family.As he arrived at the library, the sun was beginning to set although it was barely four o'clock – a sight that would ordinarily remind him just how depressing the farthest reaches of the northern hemisphere were in winter. Today, however, the last rays of sun were streaking through the stacks, bathing one Aleksandr Ledovsky in golden light, and he was struggling be mad about it.His relationship with Alek had returned to normal, or as normal as it had ever been.
They still hadn’t talked about Paris, but Alek had stopped making Fedir sit between them in runes, and he was generally a little more relaxed. Despite their conversation in tutoring, Magnus hadn’t made any real effort to flirt with him. He had, however, noticed himself watching the headboy again – as had Klara, if her little comments were anything to go by.Alek looked up as he crossed the library, and then flushed as Magnus gave him a little wave on the way past. Magnus was so distracted by the reaction he nearly forgot what he was there for when Ms Gray asked how she could help.“Right… yes, uh, returning this – thanks,” he said, handing over the book.She checked the due date and then raised one eyebrow. Magnus avoided looking at her – it was nearly two weeks overdue. Luckily, the librarian seemed to be in a good mood.“I think we can let that slide just this once. Did you find what you were looking for?”“Sort of,” Magnus said, chewing his lip. “The thing is, I’ve heard people, other students, imply that squibs don’t live very long?”There was some awkward shuffling behind him, and Magnus was suddenly aware Alek was listening to their conversation.“I see,” said Ms Gray, her eyes looking a little sad. “Was there anything on training squibs to fight?”“There was a chapter that went on about them being guardians and protectors a bit, but I kind of figured that was a metaphor…”Magnus trailed off, and the librarian sighed deeply.“Yes, I imagine the author wouldn’t have gone into too much detail. The school board only allows me to stock books written by purebloods, so he’s probably a little biased.”She smiled thinly, and Magnus had the distinct impression the school board were not her favourite people.“Well, I could recommend you some books on Volkhv military history, or...” she leant in, with a conspiratorial smile. “Maybe you could ask Mr. Ledovsky – I'd imagine he's quite knowledgeable on the matter.”Magnus turned around to see Alek, who was for all intents and purposes concentrating on the transmutation book he was reading. The only indication he'd been listening were the tips of his ears, which were still a little pink. He thanked Ms Gray, and then sat down opposite Alek with a smirk.“So?”Alek briefly looked up from the book he was reading.“Hi.”“I know you were listening Aleksandr.”Alek looked uncomfortable.“Magnus, I need to catch up with this–”“It's four o'clock on a Friday, darling, I think you can afford a break.”Alek's eyes flitted around them, and Magnus sat back a little. Once again, the endearment had tripped out
without him really meaning to say it.“Meet me by the west gate in five?”Alek's voice was so low Magnus almost struggled to make out the words, and when he did his stomach sank a little.It was one thing Alek being skittish, quite another him actively avoiding being seen with Magnus. Even doing something so innocuous as leaving the library together. He opened his mouth to say something, but Alek had already packed up, and was looking at Magnus with hopeful eyes.He swallowed down his hurt and smiled brightly instead.“See you there.”Ms Gray looked over curiously as Alek left, but Magnus didn’t feel like explaining. What would he even say – don’t worry we’re totally friends, he’s just filled with so much internalised homophobia that he doesn’t want anyone to know that?He wondered bitterly if Alek would be more comfortable with someone who was less, well, like him. Someone whose slippers were an appropriate dull shade of tartan without a flamingo in sight.When he arrived at the west gate, Alek was nowhere to be seen. The west side of the castle backed onto the dense Broslyn forest, and so was far less used than its eastern counterpart. Magnus had only been here a handful of times before, and several of those were because he'd gotten lost. It was a shame there weren't more people around to see the rosy pink tint of the trees in the setting sun, although perhaps that was because of the smell from the stables.And that's exactly why Alek had asked to meet him here, a cynical voice in his head reminded him.Alek came out from the castle a few moments later, carrying two steaming mugs, one of which he handed to Magnus. Magnus sniffed it apprehensively and to his delight, found it was hot chocolate.“The house elves are pretty generous if they like you,” Alek said with a shy smile.He took a sip. It was velvety and rich, if still a little bitter for his tastes.“So that’s where you went – I thought you just didn’t want to be seen with me,” he admitted, but his relief faded as Alek looked away.He’d been right the first time.“It's not you,” Alek said quietly, and Magnus’ lips turned up in a humourless smile.“But the makeup doesn’t help, right?”“Magnus...”Alek sounded guilty, but he didn't say Magnus was wrong.“It's fine, just tell me about the squibs.”He took another sip of hot chocolate as Alek blinked once or twice, seeming to remember why he was there.“Martial magic is a blend of martial arts and magic,” he began, continuing despite Magnus' eyeroll. “Squibs can't cast any spells, but in Volkhv tradition they train in martial arts alongside us, and fight just the same.”Magnus stared at him.“Fight, like... as in battles?”Alek nodded. “There were squib regiments in most of the great wars.”So that’s what they’d meant by guardians and protectors.“But... that's insane.” Alek looked at him in alarm, and Magnus huffed in disbelief. “Sending muggles into wars where they're fighting wizards with wands is tantamount to genocide...”“They didn't all die,” Alek said stubbornly. “One of my great uncles married a squib, and she had three children – all wizards.”“Well thank god for that,” Magnus said sarcastically and Alek looked annoyed.“Look, I know it seems strange to you, but it’s a way for squibs to have a purpose, to bring honour to their family–”“More like a way for their family to lessen the shame by sending them off to be canon fodder.”“Is it any worse than disowning them and forcing them to live among mundanes?”Magnus sat back, suddenly feeling tired.“Yes, yes it is. I know you don’t know much about muggle society Alek, but I promise you it’s better than death.”Alek looked a little ashamed, but before he could reply Magnus’ eyes widened.“Oh fuck, is that why there are so few muggleborns?”Alek nodded hesitantly. “It was only after the end of conscription that squibs have lived long enough to have children – Aunt Sofia was a bit of an exception to the rule.”"Really? Well I didn't see that coming," Magnus muttered.Alek ignored him.“Without having served in the army, most of them married mundanes - it's their descendants that are popping up now.”“Like Klara's friend?”Alek nodded, and they fell into silence.Unlike the United Kingdom, who had relied heavily on the Order in both of their wizarding wars, several countries in Eastern Europe maintained wizarding armies in place of aurors. It was supposed to be tough work, but prestigious if you rose up through the ranks. He wondered briefly if Alek would end up a soldier one day – that seemed like something his parents would approve of.
He finished his hot chocolate and then turned to face Alek.“Question for a question?”Alek nodded hesitantly.“Why would Ms Gray tell me to ask you about this?”Alek looked down at his mug, a shadow crossing his face.“The supreme mugwump is putting pressure on the Russian army to stop recruiting squibs – the Duma will be voting on it soon, so my mother’s been doing a lot of interviews.”Magnus’ look of confusion turned to horror as he realised Alek hadn’t actually been speaking in the past tense.“Squibs are exempt from mandatory service in Russia, but it’s still tradition with the old pureblood families,” Alek added quietly, and Magnus shut his eyes.It wasn’t as if squibs had always had it easy in the UK – Voldemort had seen to that – but sending them off to war, knowing full well they had no way of protecting themselves...“That's barbaric.”This time Alek didn't protest, silently sipping his hot chocolate instead.After a while, he bit his lip, looking nervous, and Magnus remembered he had a question ask in return.“Are you going to the feast tonight?”Magnus blinked in surprise. He hadn’t been expecting that.“I didn’t know there was one.”There was a moment of silence, and he watched as Alek wrap his fingers tighter around his mug.“It's to celebrate Mokosh,” Alek said, still looking at his hands. “It's not much, but I thought...”He trailed off, his eyelashes casting long shadows over his cheekbones, and something clicked in Magnus' head.“Are you asking me out?”He tried to keep any teasing from his voice, but judging by Alek's stony face he hadn't been successful.“You already asked your question,” he replied, and Magnus gave him a look that was probably a lot fonder than he'd intended.“You know, some day you’re going to have give me something in return Aleksandr – I’m not going to do all the work for you.”“I don't know what you want from me, alright?” Alek snapped.Magnus couldn't really take the tone to heart when he looked that miserable. He raised a hand to Alek's face, and gently moved a lock of hair that was hanging in front of his eyes.Alek froze.“I want to you to show me that you’re enjoying this, because I’d like to think you are, but most of the time you look terrified.”“Enjoying what?”Magnus smirked.“Me, being naturally charming.”Alek tried to look unimpressed without much success.“I asked if you were going to the feast didn’t I?“Which I assume will be held in the hall, in place of dinner?”Alek nodded petulantly, and Magnus bit back a smile.“So you asked me to go to a meal I’m already going to, along with all our friends and the rest of the school, who, I gather, you would prefer didn’t see us together... hardly the most romantic of proposals, is it?”Alek looked down, and Magnus had to resist brushing his fringe out his eyes again.“It's not an ordinary dinner,” he said eventually. “The food is better than normal, there’ll be wine, and everyone gets dressed up... I thought we could sit together, but if you don’t want to then never mind.”He sounded defensive, and Magnus felt something in his heart twist.“I'd love to sit with you Aleksandr, thank you for asking.”Alek looked up, surprised and still a little grumpy.“How is that any different from what I said before?”“Well you admitted you actually wanted to spend time with me – and of your own free will – so that's a start.”He grinned and Alek ducked his head in attempt to hide his smile, his ears pink again.“I should go, I’m supposed to be running drills with Maia and Bat,” he said, standing up.Bat was Velasquez' first name, Magnus had come to find out, although no one seemed to find that as amusing as he did. Nominative determinism was apparently language specific.“I’ll see you later?”Alek nodded, but as he was turning to go he stopped himself.“Magnus?”“Hmm?”“You should wear that glittery stuff, it looks nice.”The corner of Alek's mouth pulled up in a lopsided smile, and then he was gone, and Magnus had to stop himself grinning like an idiot.He waited a little longer before he headed up to the common room. He told himself it was to watch the end of the sunset, but part of him knew he was already protecting Alek.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
As soon as Magnus entered the common room, he was accosted by Izzy, who was buzzing with excitement.“Magnus! What are you wearing tonight?” she asked, and Magnus cocked his head.“You mean to the feast that none of you decided to tell me about?”“It's the festival of Mokosh – duh,” Izzy said, and there was a snort behind her as Klara looked up from the manga she was reading.“You remember last year when I had no idea what that was?”Izzy frowned.“Right but Magnus was at Hogwart's for six years–”“Where we absolutely did not celebrate Mokosh, whatever that is...”“Whatever she is,” Izzy corrected, “she's the goddess of the earth... you've really never heard of her?”Magnus shrugged, and Izzy shook her head in disbelief.“I wish you could come get ready with us.”“Me too, but I'd never get past Jessamine,” Magnus replied, and Klara furrowed her brow.“She likes you right?" Magnus nodded – it had become common knowledge that he liked to hang out on the windowsill by the girls' dorms. "You could always try asking her if she’d make an exception, as long as that’s alright with you Lidia?”She turned to the head girl, who looked up from the charms essay she'd been working on.“I suppose if it’s just to get ready, and Jessamine agrees not to set off the alarm... are you going to get anybody pregnant?”She looked pointedly at Magnus, and his eyebrows shot up.“Uh, Lidia, I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Izzy said.She was laughing, but Magnus felt a little awkward all the same. It seemed most of the Durmstrang students had assumed he was gay, but up until now he hadn’t had the chance to correct anybody.“Actually, I’m bisexual.”Lidia arched an eyebrow.“So... you are going to get somebody pregnant?”“No,” Magnus said, trying not laugh, “I’m just saying I’m not gay – although even if I were, not everyone who can get pregnant is a woman.”Izzy’s cheeks were uncharacteristically red, a little embarrassed by her blunder, but Lidia appeared wholly unperturbed, and had already turned her attention back to her essay.“So not gay, still not going to get anyone pregnant?”“Correct.”She pursed her lips, and then scratched out the last sentence she’d written with a sigh.“Alright then, but you'd better use my room or Voronkova will pitch a fit – she’s been trying to sneak Pangborn in since the start of term...”Izzy clapped her hands in glee, and Magnus briefly wondered what he’d let himself in for.One communal shower later and a good amount of time spent rummaging around in his trunk, Magnus approached the archway to the senior girls' rooms. In the end he’d settled on skin-tight black jeans with a matching leather belt and a bejewelled buckle in the shape of a golden dragon. He was still undecided on his shirt and jacket, so he'd pulled on a plain t-shirt and brought an armful of shirts and jackets with him.“Jessamine?”There was silence, so he called a little louder, and then jumped as the ghost descended from the ceiling.“Magnus? What are you doing here?” She frowned at him suspiciously.“Hey Jessamine,” he said flashing a brilliant smile and switching on his charm. “It turns out today's the feast of Moksha, or whatever she's called... I was hoping you might allow me to visit some friends so we can get ready together?”Jessamine’s frown deepened, apparently unconvinced.“Well I don’t know about that... the headmistress wouldn’t like it very much.”Magnus' stomach lurched.“And there’s no reason to tell her, I– I'm not trying to do anything... improper, I just want to do my makeup see?”He unzipped his makeup bag to show her the tubes and pots, and the ghost's face lit up as she drifted closer. She reached out a hand as if to touch them, but her ghostly fingers sank into the surface instead.For a moment, Magnus thought she’d been swayed, but then she shook her head, her silvery ringlets bouncing.“I’m terribly sorry, but I can't break the rules.”“Lidia said she was okay with it, if that helps?”“The head girl?” Jessamine looked at him curiously, and Magnus nodded.“Well why didn’t you say so? She has the right of course, but she never uses it – neither of them do...”Magnus blinked, a little confused, but then hastily followed her. The ghost floated down the corridor, forked to the right, and then waited impatiently for him to knock on a large door.Like Alek, it seemed Lidia had her own room, although there were no ornate carvings surrounding its door. When Izzy answered their knock, wearing a long-sleeved black dress with a deep sheer panel down the front, Jessamine stared at her, and then launched herself into the ceiling muttering “most peculiar.”Izzy watched her leave, bemused, and Magnus shrugged. He had no idea what had made Jessamine change her mind, but he was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.“Klara's already here, but we’re having trouble picking out an outfit – can you believe she suggested converse? Converse, Magnus, with a velvet dress, I’m serious...”Magnus bit back a smile as he followed her through the door. Lidia's room was in the south-west turret of the castle – not unlike a smaller version of the Ravenclaw tower, Magnus thought with a pang of longing. A large window looked out over the lake, opposite a fireplace and a few cozy armchairs. On the far side, there was a desk tucked underneath a staircase, which Magnus assumed led to a bed.Klara, who was untying the laces of a pair of battered converse on the floor, looked up as he sat down.“Oh hey Magnus, Lidia's just upstairs getting changed.”Magnus set his makeup down on the coffee table and folded his clothes over the side of an armchair, running an appraising eye over her outfit. The dress was green, cut to fit at the waist and flare out, but it was baggy on Klara's petite frame.“Do you like it?” Klara asked, tugging on her sleeves, which were a little too long.“The colour's good, but the fit isn't great – do you mind if I alter it a little?” he asked, turning to Izzy who nodded in agreement.He helped Klara to her feet before setting about her with a wand. A few well-placed shrinking charms sorted out the sleeves and shoulders, but when he got to the bust he hesitated.“Where do you want the neckline?”“Uh, a bit higher if that's ok – no offense Iz,” Klara said, glancing at the other girl.Izzy shrugged good-naturedly, watching in fascination as Magnus manipulated the fabric so it no longer hung as low and tightened the waist a touch.“Where did you learn to do that?”“Madam Malkin taught me how to alter hems after I grew six inches in second year,” he replied with a grin. “The rest I taught myself over time – it's quicker with pins, but there's not too much to do.”As he was moving the hem an inch or two higher so it hit the spot just above Klara's knee she had asked for, he heard a low whistle behind him.“Nice charms Bane,” Lidia said, and he turned his head to see she had come down the stairs. Unlike the other two girls, she was wearing the Durmstrang ceremonial dress, although she hadn't yet put on the heavy fur cape that was hung on the back of the door. “Did Jessamine give you any trouble?”“A little,” Magnus said, moving away so Klara could inspect herself in the mirror next to the fireplace. “She was fine as soon as I mentioned your name though – said something about it being your right?”For some reason, Lidia blushed a little, but she didn’t say anything to indicate why. Instead, she turned to open a cupboard under her desk, and pulled out a bottle.“Aperitif?”Izzy's eyes lit up and Magnus' mouth dropped open.“What?” Lidia asked, seeing his expression as she tapped her wand on the side of the glass to chill the vodka inside.“Oh, nothing... it's just, you're the head girl.” And possibly the last person I thought would offer me illicit alcohol, he added in his head.“I am,” Lidia grinned, “but I'm also Polish.”By the time Maia arrived late from quidditch, they had sipped their way through about a quarter of the bottle and Magnus was almost done with his makeup. Lidia poured Maia a glass and then tucked the bottle back in the cupboard, insisting that they should go easy to avoid arousing suspicion.“I guess that does have to last us all term,” said Klara gloomily, and Magnus looked at her in surprise.“You mean there isn’t anyone in Ydrys who will sell to you?”Izzy shook her head ruefully as she tested out some grey eyeshadow on her wrist.“We've tried, but no luck.”Any follow-up questions Magnus had were interrupted by Maia, who sat down on the rug and knocked back the vodka Lidia had given her in one go.“Hey Magnus, nice eyeliner.”She looked effortlessly cool, wearing a cut-off t-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a wizarding punk band, high-waisted black jeans and a set of men’s dress robes. Her braids had been replaced with a simple twist out, and her lips were covered in a bright red gloss.Magnus raised his eyebrows at her empty glass, his lips twitching.“I take it quidditch went well?”“Ledovsky's a fucking ballache... sorry, but it’s true,” she said, throwing an apologetic look toward Izzy. “He's got me and Bat training all hours of the day because he’s worried we’ll forget about Max.”Izzy set down her empty glass with a thud, her face suddenly drawn.“To be fair, seekers are an easy target,” said Lidia diplomatically, and Maia relented a little.“I know, I know, it’s just me and Bat work way better without him breathing down our necks.”“How is the dream team anyway?” Klara asked, her eyes sparkling with glee, and Magnus’ interest was piqued.“Oh so that’s a thing, you and Velasquez?”“No, it is not,” said Maia firmly, as Izzy frantically nodded behind her. “We went on one date – three years ago! – and these guys are convinced he’s still in love with me.”“If you saw the way he looked at you, you'd think so too,” said Lidia, securing the end of a fishtail braid with a plain black hair tie. She’d finished her makeup a while ago, content with some mascara and a subtle lipstick.“Right, because you’d be the expert in relationships...”Maia's tone was playful, and from the way Klara giggled Magnus assumed the teasing was all in good fun. Still, there was a stiffness in the way Lidia smiled, and she stood up as if she was keen to leave the conversation.“Did you want to try on those shirts Magnus?”Upstairs there was a double bed and two doors, one of which led to a small private bathroom. The room was nice, but bare, without any pictures or personal items to tell him more about the head girl.“Where does that go?” he asked, pointing to the second door, and Lydia sighed wearily.“To the junior girls' corridor – they’re cute but less so when they need looking after at 2 am.”“Isn’t that kind of what head girls do?” Magnus asked idly, thinking of Louise Babcocke, who’d been head girl when he started Hogwarts. Whenever he had woken from a nightmare she’d sat with him by the fire until he calmed down – she’d even gone to Madam Pomfrey to see if there was any medicine that could help.“And head boys?” Lidia asked pointedly. “Why is it Alek's allowed to do whatever he wants and I'm stuck giving hugs and handing out tissues?”“But surely Alek would help if you asked him?”“Maybe, but people seem to assume it’s my job in a way they don’t with him – he doesn’t have a door to the junior dormitories, or a stash of period supplies and birth control in his bathroom.”“Can you imagine some poor girl having to ask Alek for tampons?”There was a beat of silence, and then Lidia snorted.“Fair point, but is it any worse than me having to know whenever Pangborn runs out of condoms?”There was a loud thud downstairs followed by muffled laughter, and Lidia excused herself to see what was going on, leaving Magnus alone to try on his shirts.He held up a mesh t-shirt for consideration. It was revealing – even more so than Izzy's dress – and part of him wanted to see what Alek's reaction would be. On the other hand, he had a suspicion some of the professors would have a problem with his nipples being even faintly visible. A velvet turtleneck and a short-sleeved lace shirt were discarded for similar reasons, and he was left with two long-sleeved shirts, one in a luxurious burgundy silk and the other covered in neon paint splatters.He shrugged on the patterned one and then headed downstairs for the girls' opinion.The thud turned out to be from Klara, who from the looks of things had been trying to walk in a pair of Izzy's heels – she was now in a heap on the floor, rubbing at her ankle.“Now that is a statement shirt – you look great!” Maia said, looking up as he reached the bottom of the stairs“You think? I’m not sure about it, I might go for something more subtle,” he said, turning a little to see his reflection in the mirror over the fireplace.“I didn’t know that was in your vocabulary,” Izzy grinned, and Magnus gasped, feigning offense.“Excuse you, I have range.” As Izzy was laughing, he turned to Klara. “A stability charm would help, but you don’t have to wear heels, you know.”“I’m not,” added Lidia, gesturing to her boots, and Maia made a noise of agreement.“I guess so,” said Klara mournfully, “but I thought Janek would like it if I dressed up.”“Here,” said Magnus, fishing out Klara’s combat boots from where she’d left them next to her converse. “Try these – trust me, Janek would think you look beautiful if you turned up in a burlap sack.”Klara’s doubtful look changed to awe as he tapped the laces on Klara’s boots with his wand, transforming them into emerald ribbons that matched her dress.
When Magnus returned upstairs to change into the silk shirt, he paused to scrutinise his makeup in the bathroom light, and thought about Klara's words.In all the excitement of getting ready, he’d almost forgotten that he was dressing up for Alek – well not just for Alek, he amended as he was teasing apart his fringe. Spending time on himself, painting his face and wearing something under than a school uniform, always made him feel a little more human.Still, Alek wasn’t going to know what hit him.When he came back downstairs, the shirt almost unbuttoned to his navel, there was a chorus of whoops and wolf whistles.“Damn Magnus, who are you trying to pull?” asked Maia, and Magnus gave a twirl to avoid the glint in Klara’s eye.As he listened to the girls’ gossip – conversation having moved onto which seventh year boys Izzy was going to persuade to give her their third glass of wine – he saw to the final touches. Retrieving a handful of necklaces from the side pocket of his make-up bag, he arranged them around his neck, ensuring the longest ended tantalisingly just out of sight. At Izzy’s insistence, he borrowed a lip stain that was almost the exact colour of his shirt.Finally, he reached for a large brush and the pot of bronze glitter at the bottom of the bag.
If Aleksandr wanted glitter, then glitter he was going to get.Klara was watching, transfixed, as he swept the brush first along his cheekbones and then across the line of his clavicle.“That looks amazing, but aren’t you going to freeze?”“Not if I drink enough wine,” Magnus quipped, but he knew she was right – if he wasn’t so nervous, he’d probably be shivering. After a moment’s consideration, he decided on a pair of black fitted dress robes. They were similar to the ones Maia was wearing, but while hers were oversized – probably by circumstance rather than design – his were trimmed with black satin and tailored to fit him like a glove.He turned to Klara and lowered his voice.“Hey, I should probably take my stuff back to my room, but could you save me a seat?”She nodded, and then smiled as she saw he was hesitating, clearly wanting to say more.“Next to a certain Ledovsky, I take it?”He glanced across to Izzy, and then nodded briefly.“Don’t make it too obvious, okay?”Her grin was devious, but she kept her voice low so the others wouldn’t overhear.“Don’t worry – you’re not the only one with range.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After Magnus had returned to his room and dropped his stuff, he swung by the pigeon holes, delighted to find that Jessica had returned with a reply from Catarina. Pressing it into his pocket to read later, he hurried back into the castle and made it to the hall with moments to spare.Izzy waved at him from a table on the left, and a few people around her turned their heads to look. There were some whispers and stares – since most of the guys were in their dress uniform, his outfit was definitely making an impression – but there was only one reaction Magnus cared about.Izzy leant forward, saying something to Alek over the table, and finally he turned his head and saw him. He looked Magnus up and down, so fast Magnus wondered if he was even aware he’d done it, and then met his eyes, his mouth slowly curving into a lopsided smile.For a moment Magnus revelled in the warmth of it, and then too soon it was gone, Alek glancing around him to see if anyone had noticed.“Aleksandr,” he said as he drew up to the table, and Alek looked back to him with an unreadable expression, somewhere between hunger and apprehension. “Do you mind?” He nodded at the gap between Alek and Klara. Though the space was tight, there was another place setting between them – Klara had come through – but Alek seemed too distracted by his outfit to answer.Magnus raised an eyebrow as the silence went on a little too long.“Ow... uh, of course,” Alek said, glaring at Izzy, who Magnus strongly suspected had kicked him under the table. Alek moved a little to his right, leaving enough space for Magnus to squeeze between him and Klara, who was preoccupied mooning over Janek. As he sat down, Magnus’ knee nudged against Alek’s and Alek dropped the knife he’d picked up to butter a roll with a clatter. Magnus tried not to smirk as Alek muttered something about cold hands.Thankfully Alek seemed as nervous as he was, although when Magnus looked at him out the corner of his eye he noticed there was a faint smile playing across his lips.As the gong sounded, racks of lamb appeared in the centre of the table, accompanied by roast potatoes, picked red cabbage, minted peas, and delicious smelling jugs of gravy. Magnus doubted the nod to the West was anything to do with him, but he smiled all the same, feeling a little less homesick than before.A few moments after they tucked into the food, goblets of wine appeared on the table, and Magnus looked around, noticing that their side of the hall was only fourth years and up. Izzy smirked.“If you’re wondering if the third years ever get hold of wine, the answer’s yes, but only if you flirt with the boys in year above.”Magnus chuckled and Alek put his goblet down, having taken a large gulp.“Don’t encourage her, you didn’t have to watch it,” he said, and Magnus raised his eyebrows, wrapping his finger round his own goblet.“Is that sass, Aleksandr? We should give you wine more often.” He drew his goblet up to his lips, watching as Alek tried not to look pleased.“To the mother of moistness!” Maia yelled, raising her glass, and Magnus choked on his wine as the others joined in the toast.“The mother of what?”“You heard right,” Alek said, and a giggle escaped Magnus’ throat before he could help it.As the meal progressed, and the wine was replenished, Magnus found himself laughing a lot more than often than he was used to. The alcohol seemed to have relaxed Alek a little, and his usual reticence was replaced with a dry wit Magnus had only seen flashes of before.When it came time for the lamb to be cleared, he realised that his knee had been resting against Alek’s for a while. The touch was casual, almost familiar, but when Magnus shifted his weight, moving so that their thighs were pressed against another, he heard Alek suck in a breath.His eyes were drawn to a sudden movement by his shoulder as Alek unfastened the clips holding his tunic together, letting the collar fall forward and exposing the beginnings of his collarbone. Magnus trailed off in the middle of his sentence, and to his outrage saw Alek smirk out the corner of his eye.Well then.Two could play at that game.He glanced at Izzy, pleased to notice Klara had taken over the story he was telling without missing a beat, and then surreptitiously unbuttoned the front of his robes.“Ok now that’s just unfair.”Magnus snorted as Janek leaned over the table to gesture at his shirt and the plethora of necklaces which were now on full display. Alek, seemingly pleased to have a reason to look, was craning his head to get a better view while Klara was reassuring Janek he could pull that off if he wanted to.“Is it too much?” he asked Izzy innocently, trying desperately not to notice as Alek took a sip of wine next to him, running his tongue over his bottom lip to catch a stray drop.Before Izzy could answer, dessert appeared – a spiced apple cake with pots of custard in the middle of the table. Magnus let Izzy and Klara go for the pot to his left, plotting his next move. As the sixth former on the other side of Izzy set down a pot of custard, instead of asking him for it, Magnus leant over sideways to get it, planting a hand on Alek’s thigh as he did so.He heard Alek swallow, hard, and let his fingers linger as he sat back down on the bench.Both he and Alek made quick work of their dessert, and as Magnus put his fork down, he looked around the room.“It’s pretty much over now,” said Izzy, following his gaze, “but people will hang around here for a while before they start heading up to the common room.”“I think I’ll meet you up there,” Magnus replied, following an instinct he didn’t realise he still had. “I’ve got some things to do first.”He turned toward Alek as he got up from the bench, meeting his eyes with a smouldering glance, and wasn’t surprised when he heard Alek make his own excuses a few moments after he’d left the table. Izzy asked something as Alek was leaving, so by the time he’d left the hall, Alek was some way behind. He slowed his pace, sauntering past the empty classrooms, and smirked as he heard Alek’s footsteps approaching behind him.He was about to say hello when Alek grabbed his arm, yanking him through an archway into the library. The library was abandoned this time of night, save for Ms Gray, who was cataloguing books behind her desk in the far corner. She looked up at Magnus’ yelp, but smiled benignly when she recognised them, paying them no further attention.Alek glanced at her, making some kind of calculation in his head, before leading Magnus down the aisle furthest away from her. The library was opposite the courtyard, and in addition to the large archway, at the end of each aisle was an open window into the corridor. It did nothing to keep out the chill, but at this time of night it let the moonlight shine through onto the books, illuminating names and titles in a soft silver.Alek was moving with purpose and direction, and as they reached the end of the aisle he shoved Magnus against the farthest shelf, his eyes wild.“Are you trying, to kill me?” he hissed, his hands on Magnus’ chest.Magnus, whose head had hit a shelf with considerable force, was unable to come up anything more articulate than “what?”“That fucking shirt,” Alek whispered, his hands sliding down as he let his eyes rake over the long lines of Magnus’ stomach and the glitter on his collarbones. A smile curving his lips as he bent to murmur into Alek’s ear.“I told you you’d know when I was flirting.”Alek swore, and Magnus was halfway through reaching under his chin to pull him into a kiss when he realised Alek was unbuckling his belt and kneeling down on the floor. He opened his mouth to say something, though he wasn’t sure whether to suggest they take things slow or congratulate Alek on this riveting development, and then gasped instead when Alek freed him of his jeans and briefs in one practised movement.And then Alek’s mouth was on him, hot and heavy, and Magnus forgot how to breathe. That is, until Alek did something with his tongue, and a moan ripped from his throat, startling the silence.Alek dug his fingers into his thighs, and Magnus remembered where they were. Not only was Ms Gray on the other side of this room – Magnus prayed she hadn’t heard him, or at least that she wouldn’t investigate – but with the wine run dry, people were beginning to head upstairs.Crouching as he was, Alek was largely underneath the window and hidden from view, but Magnus held his breath as a group of girls passed by, chattering excitedly. If they looked back, even for one moment, they would see his face, and while he was doing a pretty good job at keeping the noises under control, his face was an open book.Alek was ruthless, his tongue insistent and almost overwhelming. Magnus found himself gripping onto the shelf behind him as his knees turned liquid and Alek wound one arm around his leg, pulling him ever closer. Almost without warning, his mouth opened in silent ecstasy, his head tipping backward, and Alek carried him through it, swallowing every drop.When he had stilled, Alek rose to his feet, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, zipped up Magnus’ jeans, and turned to leave without a word. It took Magnus several minutes, slumped and panting against the bookshelf, to put a thought together.And when he did, it wasn’t much more than: well fuck.When he’d finally gathered his senses and made it back upstairs to the common room, he was bemused to see Alek, sitting with the others, acting as if everything were completely normal. He didn’t even spare Magnus a glance as he entered, although Maia noticed him and waved.Part of him wondered if the whole thing had been some kind of obscene fever dream – it seemed wildly out of character for the shy stammering Alek he was used to. They hadn’t even kissed, he realised, pressing a hand to his lips as if to reassure himself they existed.Deep down, he knew he wouldn’t be able to sit and make conversation without giving something away, so he retreated to his room to read Catarina’s letter. When he unfurled the paper, her words brought him crashing down to earth.
Dear Magnus,
Darling, I say this with the greatest of love, but please don’t do this again. It doesn’t matter whether the boy is straight or not, because whatever he is he’s not good enough for you.
You deserve someone who will love you completely and unreservedly, some who’s so proud of being with you that they shout it from the rooftops. Let’s face it, you’re not going to find that in some closet case who can’t even work up the guts to kiss you – and don’t think I don’t know you weren’t dropping hints like crazy!
I had to sit through years of watching Camille sweep you under the rug, and I don’t think I’d survive the sequel. To be honest, I’m not sure you would survive the sequel.
Do you know if you can visit us over Christmas? There are plenty of gorgeous Peruvian men you can use to take your mind off whatever-his-name-is.
Lots of love,
Catarina
P.S. If you don’t want me to show your letters to Ragnor, you should write that at the beginning – you were right, he was very rude (but I don’t disagree!)
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was predictable, really, that Alek would freak out again. Their entire relationship (if you could call it that) had been one step forward, two steps back.Still, it didn’t feel great being discarded as soon as the passion had cooled – Alek hadn’t even so much as said hello to him since.Which is why Magnus was in a foul mood as he headed to lunch the following Thursday. He sat down next to Klara and Maia, helping himself to a pumpkin pirozhki and muttering a greeting. Alek was only moments behind, having come from the same Defense Against the Dark Arts Class, but he barely spared him a glance as he made his way to a table of sixth years on the other side of the hall.Klara noticed his face and raised an eyebrow, but he shook his head fractionally. She’d asked where he’d gotten to after the feast on Friday night, but he hadn’t told her about the library.The less people who knew about whatever was happening between him and Alek, the better.Not that he had any idea what was happening.“So, you guys looking forward to Hogwarts?”Klara’s tone was bright and chipper, and Magnus felt a tiny bit guilty for the groan of frustration that came out of him.“Can we talk about literally anything other than that?”“I think that’s a no,” Maia said dryly, and Klara narrowed her eyes.“Oh come on, how bad can it be?”“Bad,” Magnus said shortly, biting into the soft dough.“Magnus is worried that the Hogwarts lot are going to tell us all his dirty little secrets,” Klara said to Maia, and Magnus sighed.It wasn’t the ‘little’ secrets he was worried about, more like the gargantuan illegal ones that had several ministries trying to cover them up.“Are we talking embarrassing, illegal, morally bankrupt, or all of the above?”Magnus winced involuntarily at the last option and Maia gave a low whistle.“Damn Bane, this is gonna be fun.”“Somehow I very much doubt that.”They drifted into silence, and Magnus’ attention moved over to the table where Alek had joined Janek and Bat. A moment later, Alek’s face cracked into a brilliant smile as he laughed at something Janek had said and Magnus felt a surge of white-hot jealousy.Irrational jealousy, he reminded himself.Unless Klara and Janek's relationship was a lot less monogamous than he’d been led to believe, he had no competition on that front.Besides, it wasn’t as if he and Alek were actually together.Alek could do whatever he wanted.Even if lately, that seemed to include sending his sister to cancel their weekly tutoring session with the flimsiest of excuses.Maybe it had been for the best, Magnus thought, finishing off the pirozhki and wiping the crumbs from his hands.
Despite Catarina’s advice, he knew, deep down, what would happen if the two of them were alone again.“I need a distraction,” he announced abruptly.“…from what?” asked Klara“Hogwarts,” Magnus lied, dragging his gaze back to his friends. “What are you doing this weekend?”Klara looked to Maia, who shrugged.“Not much – Ledovsky wants us on the quidditch pitch Sunday afternoon, but other than that…”“Klara?”“No big plans, Luke’s away,” she replied, pinking a little as Magnus raised an eyebrow. Whenever Farkas had business outside of the institute, Janek was conspicuously absent from the dormitory.He took a sip of mulled wine, considering his options. He refused to sit around moping over Alek, or worse, playing every second of their frenzied rendezvous in the library over and over again in his mind–“Fuck it,” he said, interrupting his own thoughts, and Maia raised her eyebrows at the vehemence.“I think it’s time for my inaugural party at the institute.”The reaction his announcement received was markedly less enthusiastic than he felt it deserved.“With what, exactly?” Maia asked. “Lidia’s saving her stash for the end of term.”Magnus waved his hand as if to swat away her scepticism.“You said Luke’s away, right?” He asked, turning to Klara, who nodded. “Then I’ll go get some stuff – as long as you don’t mind me taking the boat out again?”“To Ydrys?” Klara asked, and Maia shook her head.“That won’t work – the guy at the Hunter’s Moon doesn’t sell to students, and you and I both know they won’t believe you’re local.”She gave him a look, and Magnus shrugged. She was right of course – from what he'd heard, anyone who wasn’t white stuck out like a sore thumb in the scarcely-populated town – but he wasn’t planning on going to Ydrys.“Just trust me – I’ll go after school on Friday. Do you think we could use the cabin?”Klara shook her head slowly. “Luke would know, but there’s a clearing in the forest I found last summer that might work?”“Outside the gate?”Klara nodded and Magnus pulled a face. While the institute’s curfew was relaxed at the weekend, the gates to the castle were still locked at 11 pm sharp.Plus, it'd be fucking freezing“We can light a fire to keep warm,” said Klara, apparently reading his mind, “and I’ll bring Luke's keys to get us back into the castle.”After that, Maia began making suggestions and the plan came together with ease. They decided they’d keep it small – just Magnus, Klara, and the rest of the quidditch team.“Well, obviously not Max, or Ledovsky will lose his shit,” Maia pointed out, and Klara stifled a giggle. The youngest Ledovsky would no doubt complain about being left out, but Alek's protective streak wasn’t confined to the quidditch pitch.Besides, Magnus realised with a sinking feeling in his stomach, Alek would be enough trouble himself.He wondered briefly if he could get away with ‘forgetting’ to invite him all together, but people would ask too many questions.
In the end, he settled for leaving the invitations to Maia and Klara, and hoping Alek was distant enough with both of them that he simply wouldn’t come.When school finished on Friday, Magnus watched from the owlery as Professor Ledovsky departed to his flat in Ydrys, accompanied by the majority of the school staff. With Luke absent, the only teachers around that weekend were those who lived onsite – the librarian, his herbology professor, and of course Vulchanova.He pushed down a growing sense of trepidation as made his way to the cabin where he'd arranged to meet Klara. If Vulchanova caught wind of their plans, he’d be screwed, but he'd done his best to make sure that didn’t happen. At that very moment Lidia was on her way to ask for help with her transfiguration homework so the headmistress wouldn’t notice the boat out on the lake, and he’d double and triple checked the clearing couldn’t be seen from the east side of the school.Nevertheless, when Klara offered up a small sack of galleons and sickles to contribute to the booze, Magnus turned her down. It was a tenuous line at best, but as long as he paid for the alcohol with the money left over from the necklace, he wasn’t actually breaking any of Vulchanova’s stipulations.She'd banned him from selling alcohol, but she hadn’t said anything about giving it away.Maybe it was a little over the top to go to Paris on a booze run, but the cashier at Caviste Charmée had always had a soft spot for him, and a delightful way of pronouncing his name ‘Mag-noos’. Flirting aside, he didn’t linger in the catacombs, and it was barely half an hour later that he was pulling up the anchor and rowing back to shore.Janek and Klara were waiting to help him carry the crates inside, and when he saw the fruits of Magnus’ labour – ten bottles of wine, a bottle of fire whiskey, and a bottle of rum – Janek greeted him with open incredulity and more than a touch of admiration.“I don't know how the hell you pulled this off Bane, but do you know how much money you could make if you sold this to the rest of the school?”“Actually, I do,” said Magnus shortly, “and trust me, it’s still not worth the consequences.”He was putting an awful lot of trust in his friends. If anyone slipped up, mentioned it to a friend in passing or even was too obviously hungover, his time at the institute would be short lived.His trepidation only got worse at dinner, when Klara flashed the others an unsubtle thumbs up and Izzy clapped him on the back. “Keep it down guys,” he warned, thankful that at the very least, Vulchanova seemed to be too involved her conversation with Ms Gray to pay them any mind.Still, as he glanced around the hall he caught more than a few eyes looking their way. Voronkova, who as usual looked like she’d just stepped in dragon dung, was practically smirking at him from her perch on Pangborn's lap.Magnus felt a twinge of pity as she vied for her fiancé’s attention – while his arm was draped possessively around her waist, Pangborn was deep in conversation whoever was sitting on his other side.
Eventually, he turned around, irritation clear on his face even from a distance. As he listened to what Voronkova had to say, he locked eyes with Magnus, and his smile sent shivers down his spine.“Be careful later,” Magnus said in a low voice, turning back to the Izzy and Maia. “Make sure you’re not followed and don’t all leave the dormitory at once – tell the guys to do the same.” He directed the last bit at Janek, who was in the middle of espousing the merits of knuckle balls to an incredibly patient Klara.There was a momentary break as Janek looked up to acknowledge he’d heard, and Klara flashed him a grateful smile, expertly moving the conversation on to how they would carry the booze and the picnic blankets from the cabin to the forest.Not for the first time, Magnus thought their relationship might be one of the healthiest he’d seen between teenagers – and a much-needed pick-me-up after Pangborn & Voronkova.When he arrived at the clearing after dinner, following the instructions Klara had given him, Lidia and Maia were already there setting up the campfire.“You need to get a proper coat,” said Lidia disapprovingly, and Magnus pulled the thin denim jacket he was wearing tighter around him.“Trust me, I’ll be fine as soon as the rum gets here.”She shook her head in amusement, using her wand to light the tinder under the pyramid of logs they’d built.Moments later, Janek and Bat arrived, carrying a crate each, and Magnus swiftly acquired the bottle of rum as the others began to look through the wine.“This is decent stuff,” Maia said approvingly, looking at the labels. “Are you going to tell us where you got it from?”“Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies,” Magnus said with a smirk, uncapping the rum and swigging it straight from the bottle.Klara arrived next, bringing the picnic rugs and a collection of battered camping mugs to drink out of – a little late for Magnus, but he appreciated the thought all the same. Soon the fire was roaring, and Bat produced a small Bluetooth speaker which he hung from a tree.Magnus watched curiously as he dug out a battered MP3 player, pressed a few buttons, and then tapped the speaker with his wand. To his amazement, soft indie music began to play, and Maia looked up in delight. She hid her smile quickly when she saw who’d set it up, but Bat didn’t seem to mind, watching her pour out some wine with a gentle smile.“Is that playing through Bluetooth?” Magnus asked, moving to stand next to Bat and offering him the bottle of rum. Bat shook his head, taking a sip.“No, I couldn’t get that working – I figured out the MP3 player and headphones in third year, but after that hooking it up to the speaker was a bit of trial and error.”“I’m impressed – that can’t have been easy.”Bat shrugged, and Magnus looked back at the fire with a small smile.Bat was being modest – he’d never seen modern technology work around this much magic apart from the beaten-up record player in the Gryffindor common room, and that had a habit of producing copious smoke any time someone tried to play Celestina Warbeck.He strongly suspected that particular quirk might be Ragnor’s doing, but he’d never been able to prove it.
“I’m guessing a modified sonorous charm combined with something else?”“Protean charm,” he replied, continuing when Magnus quirked an eyebrow, “you need that to make sure it knows when you change the track on the MP3 player – the first time we tried it, it was stuck playing Basshunter for hours.”Magnus snorted. He hadn’t pegged Bat as a fan of trashy Eurodance.“Basshunter?”“Not my choice,” Bat said, tipping his head to where Janek was curled up with Klara.That sounded more like it.“Sorry I’m late – Voronkova wouldn’t stop sniffing around.”He turned round at the sound of Izzy’s voice and saw that she had company. Ordinarily he wouldn’t say anything in front of the others, but he was already a little tipsy.“Yelizaveta, a delight as always.” He kissed the air next to her cheek before smiling tightly and acknowledging Alek. “And Aleksandr – how generous of you to grace us with your presence.”Alek shifted awkwardly.“Someone had to make sure you didn’t burn down the forest.”“Oh we’re talking now are we?” Alek blinked at the sharpness in his voice, and Magnus turned back to Izzy. “Can I get you a drink?”As he was leading her to the wine, he glanced behind him. Alek looked like he’d just been slapped, which probably shouldn’t give him as much satisfaction as it did.He poured out a mug of red wine, ignoring Izzy's folded arms.“Care to explain what’s going on with you and my brother?”“Not sure I could if I tried,” Magnus said, screwing the top back on the wine with a little more force than necessary.Izzy pursed her lips, looking back over to Alek, who had sat down next to Janek. He wasn't paying much attention to the conversation Janek and Bat were having, and although he’d been passed a mug of wine, it remained untouched.Alek looked up, almost as if he felt their eyes on him, but as soon as he saw Magnus his cheeks flushed and he shifted his gaze hastily to the crackling fire.Izzy rolled her eyes, shaking her head in amusement, and then stalked off to sit with the rest of the girls. A few moments later, Magnus followed, sighing heavily.This was supposed to be his distraction from the whole Alek situation, not a one-way ticket to more emotional turmoil.Luckily, he had copious amounts of alcohol to cut the tension.He definitely wasn’t noticing the way Aleksander kept glancing in his direction, or the way he took a gulp of wine any time he found Magnus looking back.And if Magnus was a little more himself than usual – his smiles brighter, his laughs louder, and his jokes lewder – he could always blame it on the rum.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Some time later, Magnus flopped down next to Maia, flat on his back.“I think that's Orion's belt,” he said squinting and pointing up at the sky.“Magnus... how drunk are you?”“Not that drunk,” he lied, hiding the half-empty bottle of rum he’d been drinking from.“Are you trying to stargaze?” she asked, clearly judging him.“What? It’s romantic!”“Sure, but we’re in a forest.”Magnus squinted back up at the sky and realised what he’d thought was a constellation was the firelight glinting off the canopy far above them.“Oh... right.”They dissolved into giggles until Magnus had to sit back up to make sure he didn’t throw up.“Stop, stop it I’m dying,” he gasped, and Maia wiped the tears from her eyes, pulling herself up to join him.“What is his problem?” she muttered, looking across the fire.“Who, Bat? I like him, and he’s not bad-looking you know.”He winked sloppily and nudged Maia a little too hard. She gave him a withering look.“Not him, Ledovsky – he’s been scowling this way all evening.”Magnus peered through the flames, finding a surly looking Alek. He still wasn’t making conversation, but by the looks of it he was on his third or fourth glass of wine.He waggled his fingers, and Alek flushed, averting his eyes again.“Fuck if I know... I need to stretch my legs.”He stood up, cracking his neck, and Maia squinted up at him blearily.“You want company? The forest can be a bit creepy.”“As long as there aren’t any rampaging hordes of centaurs, I think I’ll be fine.”He headed off further into the forest, looking for somewhere private he could relieve his bursting bladder. The noise of the party faded behind him as he climbed a gentle hill and he smiled fondly as the beginnings of a truly terrible Basshunter song floated through the crisp night air.That would be Janek’s work.It was only after he’d zipped his jeans back up that he realised he’d wandered further than he thought, and he had no idea which way the clearing was.“Shit. Fuck. Shitting Fuck.”He fumbled for his wand, trying desperately to listen for the sounds of his friends, and of course managed to drop it in the dark. As he was on his knees rooting around for it on the hard ground, he heard a branch crack behind him and spun around, to find himself face to groin with...“Alek?”Alek started back and Magnus stumbled to his feet.“Shit, sorry... what are you doing on the floor?”“Looking for my wand... are you following me?”“What? No...” Alek stammered, somewhat unconvincingly, “and did you forget you can summon it?”Magnus blinked. He had indeed forgotten he could summon it.In fact, he might have forgotten he was a wizard all together, which was impressive given he’d been searching for his wand.He held out his hand, concentrated, and breathed a sigh of relief as the wand hit his hand with a familiar thunk.He turned back to Alek, a little bashful.“Er, thanks... why are you following me anyway?”“I– I thought you might have gotten lost,” Alek said lamely, and Magnus screwed up his nose.“I can’t have been gone long... hang on–” Alek’s gaze shifted a little and Magnus huffed in disbelief. “Were you hoping for a repeat of last Friday?”“What? I–” Alek cut himself off, his hands balling into fists. “No.”“You were,” Magnus breathed, mouth agape.
“That was a mistake, and I’m sorry, ok? It won’t happen again.”“Too fucking right it won’t,” Magnus said, almost laughing at the sheer audacity. “For future reference, ignoring someone for a week generally makes them less inclined to let you suck their–”Alek shoved him violently against a tree and he gasped as his head hit the trunk.“Shut up.”“...okay that was hot.”Alek clamped a hand over his mouth, his eyes darting over Magnus' shoulder.“I said shut up,” he hissed, “and I wasn’t ignoring you.”“Yes you were,” Magnus tried to reply, but from behind Alek's hand it came out as a series of unintelligible grunts.Alek seemed to understand anyway.“Fine, I was ignoring you, but only because I had to... now will you please. Shut. Up.”Magnus rolled his eyes, and then realised he could hear voices nearby.“...this is a waste of time – there isn’t anybody here.”“I swear Anson, I overheard the chyorneya telling Ledovsky in the toilets.”Magnus groaned behind the hand. Great – Pangborn, Voronkova, and from the sounds of it Yaxley as well.The voices drifted nearer, and Alek's eyes widened in fear. He dropped his hand, pressing his body flat against Magnus'.Logically Magnus knew he was only trying to avoid being seen – quite possibly to avoid being seen with him – and yet he couldn’t help his body’s reaction.Alek's eyelashes fluttered as he felt Magnus' growing arousal, and he made a tiny involuntary noise in the back of his throat. Magnus instinctively parted his legs and Alek's thigh slid between them as if it belonged there. Their foreheads were resting together, and he could feel the warmth of Alek's breath against his skin.He was struggling to remember why he'd thought this was such a bad idea.
Alek’s breath hitched as Magnus snaked an arm around his waist, holding him close. He let his lips ghost over pale skin as he bent down to whisper in Alek’s ear.“Why would you ignore this?”“What was that?”Yaxley's voice was just on the other side of the tree, and Magnus waited, holding his breath. Alek’s nose was pressed against the side of his head, and his breath was tickling his ear.“Probably nothing,” Pangborn said bitterly. “Honestly Elena, next time you want us to crash a party can you at least make sure you know where it is? We’re almost back at the lake for fuck's sake.”Magnus swore under his breath before he could stop himself. He must have come further south than he'd thought – the clearing was a good ten minutes walk from the lake.“There!” Elena's voice was triumphant. “Anson do the spell – what’s the incantation again? Homenum reveal-o or something like that...”Magnus' stomach lurched as Alek stiffened. If Pangborn cast it right, they’d be found.However pissed off he was at Alek right now, he didn’t want him to be outed. Not like this.Suddenly he pushed off from the tree, spinning around and sending Alek away and into the shadows as he stumbled out into the path.“Why hello there,” he said loudly, pausing as three faces turned to him with varying expressions of surprise and disdain. “Sorry I didn’t come out earlier – I was, uh, answering natures call.”He winked at Yaxley and the sixth year looked revolted.“Where are your friends?”“Sorry, who?”“Answer him gryaznokrovka, we know you’re having a little get together – pity we didn’t get an invite.”Pangborn's mouth was twisted with spite, and Magnus rapidly sobered up as he realised for the first time he might be in real trouble.Three against one – well, two if you counted Alek, but he seemed to be staying hidden so far. Not that Magnus could blame him.Voronkova's eyes shifted behind him and he whirled into action, moving clockwise so he could draw their attention away from Alek.“Sorry to disappoint, but it's just me.”“If that's true then what are you doing in the forest this late?” Voronkova demanded, and Magnus almost rolled his eyes.“What you should be doing – taking a walk and minding my own damn business. Say...” he pretended to look at a watch he wasn’t wearing. “Isn’t it almost curfew?”He took a few steps back as Pangborn surged forward his wand outstretched.“Don’t fucking speak to her.”“Terribly sorry – I thought you wanted me to answer questions?”He pulled a face of exaggerated confusion, his own wand now lazily tracing the air between them.“You think you’re so fucking smart, don’t you?”“Well, smarter than you,” Magnus replied. “What exactly is your plan if you get locked out of the institute?”“What's your plan?” Pangborn spat back at him, and Magnus smirked.“Wouldn’t you like to know.”At that Pangborn lost his patience and sent a hex whistling through the air.Magnus instinctively dodged back and to the left, just as Flitwick had taught him, and then realised with dread as his foot slipped the lake was closer than he thought.A few rocks skittered down the steep cliff, splashing as they hit the inky black water below. He had just enough time to see Pangborn's glee illuminated by a flash of light from behind before his balance faltered and he tumbled back.His last thought before he hit the water was “maybe Alek had a point about ceding ground.”And then there was only darkness, pain, and freezing, crushing water.He sank like a stone, precious air streaming from his mouth in a soundless scream.There was a crash somewhere to the left, and then arms were grabbing at him from the darkness and pulling him sideways. He fought them, kicking and screaming, but they were too strong. His lungs were burning, but when he gasped for air all that came was ice cold water.“Magnus!”His world toppled sideways as he choked and spluttered, still struggling against his captor.“MAGNUS! It’s me, I’ve got you.”He pushed back his hair out of his eyes, realising that the arms were actually holding him above the surface as his captor tread water.“Alek?”Speaking brought on another round of hacking coughs as he tried to clear the last of the water from his lungs.“Are you ok?”Magnus nodded, finally regaining his breath.“I can’t swim.”“I figured.”Alek's teeth were chattering as he spoke.“How did you... it’s pitch black – there’s no way you could have seen me.”“I just swam straight down. You got lucky.”Magnus nodded woodenly. He could feel Alek's legs working beneath the water to hold them up, but he’d get tired soon.“Do you have your wand?”There was an awful silence before Alek spoke.“Shit. I dropped it when we were underwater... you?”Magnus shook his head.He raised a shaking hand and concentrated, but wherever his wand was, it didn’t respond. He looked back up the cliff doubtfully.“Do you think they’d hear us?”Alek shook his head grimly.“I stunned Voronkova, and Yaxley ran off when you fell.”There was little chance that Pangborn had stuck around, and even less that he’d help them if he had.“We need to move.”“I don’t know how long the cliffs go on for, but the dock's that way.”Alek nodded to their right, where he could just about make out the shadow of the great ship where the trees ended.It was too far away. They’d never make it.He shut his eyes, letting the change creep in, and when he opened them his pupils were the long slits of his animagus form.Alek came into focus, his hair plastered against the side of his face. Thankfully he wasn’t looking.He turned his head, and saw the steep cliff fell away a little further to their left. Maybe fifty meters away, he could make out the beginnings of another pebbled shore.“We should go that way,” he said, blinking as his eyes pupils became round again and darkness fell. “I think I can see a beach.”Alek frowned, sounding unsure.“I don’t know... I’ve never been that far out – at least we know the dock's that way.”“The dock’s too far Alek, so I need you to trust me on this.” He hesitated, and then added “I’m pretty sure Janek mentioned it earlier.”Alek sighed, but as Magnus had suspected, Janek's imaginary corroboration sealed the deal.He loosened his grip on Magnus’ waist, moving a little away.“Do you think you can float?”Magnus took a deep breath and leant back. His boots were dragging his feet down, and as he tried desperately to spread his limbs, the water lapped over his face.He gasped for air, righting himself with a splash and clinging onto Alek's shoulders as the head boy came to hold him up again.“Alek I– please don't make me–”He broke off, taking in panicked breaths. Alek held him tighter, waiting patiently.“I don’t like water.”His voice was smaller than usual, and Alek shushed him, almost crooning against his hair.“It's okay, we'll try another way.”Alek shifted, moving so he was pressed against Magnus' back. He leant back, kicking his legs up, and this time Magnus’ head stayed above water, resting Alek's chest.“Alright?”Magnus nodded and Alek began scissoring his legs, propelling them backwards.Progress was awkward. Alek only had one arm to help, the other wrapped firmly around Magnus' waist. Occasionally Magnus would hear him choke as his own mouth dipped below water, but his hold never loosened and he never complained.Time slowed down, and as Magnus lay looking up at the stars, a creeping numbness began to take hold.“Now I’ve been wrong before, but I’m pretty sure that’s Orion’s belt,” he said, throwing a hand up to point at the sky.Alek snorted.“I can’t believe you're stargazing while I’m trying to save your life.”“Hey! It’s romantic... Aleksandr?”“Mmm?”“Does Orion always have a feather boa?”“Ah fuck.”Alek didn’t seem particularly surprised by his question, and Magnus frowned as the stars seemed to move again.“...I know he doesn’t normally pole dance.”“Shut your eyes, you’ll feel better.”Magnus complied, letting himself be lulled into a state of semi-consciousness by the repetitive motion.After that, things came in bits and pieces – the rush of water as Alek lifted him bridal-style when they reached the shallows, his muttered curses as he fell to his knees on the beach, and, perhaps most concerning, the sounds of retching as Alek emptied his stomach before laying down next to him.Magnus popped open an eye, somewhat distressed to see Alek was a luminous shade of green.“Are you ok?” is what he tried to ask, but his tongue didn’t seem to cooperate.“The water,” Alek gasped “i's halluce–, halluna–, it makes you see things.”Magnus considered this. It was true people didn’t usually look that green, even if they had just thrown up.There was movement to his left as Alek struggled to sit up, searching desperately through his own pockets and then Magnus'.Magnus pulled a reproachful face, hoping to communicate that they'd already established neither of them had wands.“I know, I know,” muttered Alek. “W’s hoping we were wrong. ‘S poisonous too.”Alek's words were beginning to slur together, and even in his dim state Magnus knew this was cause for alarm.He looked around, ignoring the garish colours and pulsating branches, and with great effort raised a hand.Alek followed the direction he was pointing in, and nodded shakily.He saw it too. A cottage, though in this state he couldn’t tell if it had windows or gaping holes to a nightmare dimension, let alone if anyone lived there.Alek yelled for help, his voice hoarse and desperate. Other than a slough of black shadows (birds? bats?) from the trees, there was no response.“’Ny spell?”Alek looked at him blankly, and Magnus moved his left hand to throw up a stuttering shield.“’Ny spell?”Alek cottoned on, and nodded.Summoning up all his energy, Magnus pointed his wand arm to the sky, and yelled as hard as he could.The sky sputtered into a life as a stream of red sparks shot straight up and flooded the beach with hellish light. He could hear Alek's triumphant laugh next to him, and then suddenly, as if he’d hit a wall, exhaustion claimed him and the world faded to black.
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Sound came first.The breeze blowing through an open window.Retching, moaning from the bed opposite.And the muffled sound of conversation coming from a room nearby.Then came the crushing exhaustion – bizarre given he’d been asleep for what felt like eternity.The conversation was getting louder, closer.He opened his mouth to ask for help but all that came out was a dry croak.“...I don’t care Jem, I don’t want it and I’m not taking it–”The voice – a woman, familiar though he couldn’t place it – broke off sharply as she entered the room.“Magnus, can you hear me?”Ms Gray, he realised, the librarian. That’s why her voice had been familiar.What was she doing at his bedside?“Magnus?”He opened his mouth again, this time managing a hoarse whisper.“Water...”There were the sounds of her coming closer, and then cool hands were cradling his head, lifting up a glass to his lips.He drank too quickly, choking himself into spluttering coughs as he wrenched his eyes open.“Magnus... I’m so sorry.”The librarian’s face was wracked with guilt, and Magnus looked up in alarm as a second figure burst into the room, his cane clicking on the floor.“Tessa, will you just– you’re awake.”“...Professor Carstairs?”“How do you feel?”Magnus blinked in confusion as his mild-mannered herbology teacher stepped closer, holding a hand to the back of his forehead.“He's burning up – Tessa, the compress if you will?”Carstairs put down the wand he was carrying – a long mahogany one Magnus had never seen – and produced a second from his robes, the stiff ash wand he used in lessons.He waved his wand over Magnus' chest, and sighed in audible relief as Ms Gray returned with a damp cloth.“He'll be fine, it's mostly exhaustion.”Magnus tried to sit up, and was immediately hit by a crippling wave of nausea.“Rest, Magnus. You’ve been through a lot – can you remember what happened?”Professor Carstairs helped him back down, reaching for a extra pillow and placing it behind him.“Where am I?”“The infirmary,” Carstairs replied, and Magnus stifled a moan as the cold cloth was pressed against his forehead. He appeared to have been put in flannel pyjamas – magically, he hoped.“Do you remember the lake?” Ms Gray asked, perching on the chair next to his bed.Magnus frowned. Klara had mentioned that Carstairs ran the infirmary when he wasn’t teaching, but he was still confused as to why the librarian was there, unless...“There was a cottage, we washed up by a–”Shit.“Aleksandr... is he okay?”Carstairs looked at the librarian sideways, and the twist of fear in Magnus' stomach was unknotted as the figure in the bed next to him rolled over.“I’m okay.”Alek looked like he was on the brink of death, pale and shuddering. Magnus looked to Carstairs with wide eyes.“The water, it was–”“Poisonous,” Carstairs nodded. “I’ve given you both an antidote, but it will take a while to work its way through your system.”“And Alek?”At his name, Alek grunted from his bed, but seemed incapable of a response. It was Ms Gray who answered him.“It was my house you washed up by. After you passed out, Alek had to help me carry you up to the castle – I understand it was an unpleasant experience.”The librarian’s eyes were downcast as she spoke.“But I don’t understand, why couldn’t you just levi–”Oh.But Klara had been so sure the rumours weren’t true...“She’s as much of a witch as you or me.”Carstairs eyes burned with a quiet fury, although Ms Gray's glare stopped him from saying more.Her eyes shifted to Alek, and she seemed to come to a decision.“I am a witch, but I’ve never learned how to use a wand.”Alek was looking at her like she was insane, but Magnus' eyes drifted to the wand on his bedside table.A wand Carstairs had been trying to give her, he realised.“Why?”Carstairs stiffened as Alek broke the silence, but Ms Gray answered anyway.“It's a long story, but to cut it short, I was raised a muggle – much like Klara. I was already an adult when I found the wizarding world, and what I found wasn't for me.”She smiled tightly before making her excuses, and Alek flushed red, suitably embarrassed.
Carstairs watched her leave with barely disguised longing, and Magnus wondered what their relationship was – he’d noticed Ms Gray wore a wedding band, but the herbology teacher didn’t have one to match.Carstairs was unusually short with them as he arranged for the house elves to bring up a late dinner and prepared some tea to help with Alek's nausea.“Is that Alihotsy?” Magnus asked, squinting to see the leaves Carstairs was adding to a teapot. He nodded curtly, but then seemed to soften as Magnus continued. “Madam Pomfrey always told us it was good for nausea.”“Poppy’s still teaching?”Magnus took a moment to remember that was Pomfrey's first name.“Oh... yeah, I went to her OWL classes with my friend. Do you know her?”“A little, although I haven’t seen her in years – once upon a time I was a student of hers too.”Magnus wanted to ask more, but a second wave of nausea hit and he shut his eyes tight, shuddering violently instead.Carstairs was at his side swiftly, removing the cloth on his forehead and helping him sit up to drink some tea. As he poured a cup for Alek, a house-elf appeared holding a tray with a bowl of clear broth and a roll of bread. The moment he set it down in front of Magnus a second appeared in his hands for Alek, who thanked him.Carstairs returned to his office to rummage in his desk as the house-elf disapparated with a swift salute.“Here – in case you feel like something sweet.”He handed Alek and Magnus a box each, and Magnus was delighted to recognise a chocolate frog – real chocolate – from Honeydukes.“How did you–”“My nephew sends them by owl,” Carstairs replied with a small smile, his eyes flicking toward the door. “I’d like to keep an eye on you both overnight. I’ll be in my rooms upstairs, but if either of you need me, just ask Church to come and find me.”Magnus turned his head to see a familiar Persian Blue cat had come back to the infirmary, padding softly over to wind his way between Carstairs legs.The herbology teacher bent down to scratch the cat’s chin, before leaning on his cane to stand back up and retrieving the spare wand that he’d left on Magnus’ bedside table.“I trust you’ll both keep what you heard earlier to yourselves? Ms Gray has enough trouble without the whole school becoming aware of her situation.” They both nodded, and Carstairs seemed satisfied, pulling a privacy curtain across the room so they were out of sight from the corridor.
An awkward silence fell as they finished their soup. Magnus managed to get down most of the soup and the chocolate frog, but Alek barely ate a thing.He hadn’t yet thanked him, he realised. It seemed unfair that he should be so much worse off when he’d only jumped into the lake to save Magnus.“Thank you,” he said suddenly, smiling a little as Alek looked at him in confusion. “For coming in after me.”Alek stared at him blankly, and then shrugged, hugging his knees to his chest. His food remained largely untouched on his bedside table.“I wasn’t going to let you drown, and anyway, you were the one who sent the flare.”“I guess that’s what knocked me out – it was a lot harder than summoning.” Alek shuddered again, forcing himself to take another sip of the Alihotsy tea, and Magnus hesitated. “Is that helping?”“A bit – it’s pretty weak.”“Do you smoke?”“Um, not by habit – why?”“The alihotsy – it’s stronger if you smoke it.”Alek didn’t reply, but he didn’t protest as Magnus began sifting through his clothes, which had been dried and folded on the chair between their beds.His wand was still missing – Alek told him Carstairs was going to retrieve them tomorrow morning – but the rolling tin in his jacket pocket was still intact. More importantly, the impervius charm he’d used to keep it watertight had held.“Who's W. S.?” Alek asked, curiosity overcoming his weakness.Magnus stroked the initials on the tin, smiling at the memory.“A friend. He gave up smoking, but I used to carry the tin around because he always wanted one when we got drunk.”Alek’s face suddenly went a little green, and Magnus wondered if the nausea had gotten worse.He took a dried alihotsy leaf from the jar Carstairs had left by Alexander and placed it on a clean napkin from his dinner tray, before scrunching up the napkin and crushing the dried leaf in the middle. Alek watched warily as he lay out some tobacco and then added half of the crushed leaf, rolling it into a thin cigarette.He raised his eyebrows at Alek, who protested weakly. Magnus shrugged, opening the window.“Well, I'm going to smoke this – let me know if you want any.”“What if Carstairs comes back?”“He won’t.”“You can’t be sure.”Magnus rolled his eyes, hissing with pain as he rose to his feet and opened the privacy curtain.“Jessamine?”It only took a few moments for the ghost to appear, her eyes flitting to Alek over his shoulder.“Oh my...”He raised an eyebrow quizzically, but the ghost remained silent. He was pretty sure she was blushing, but it was hard to tell given her ghostly pallor.“Me and my, uh, friend are recovering from a nasty dip in the lake, so we're in need of some… recuperation.”The ghost’s eyes went comically wide, and Magnus had a niggling feeling his vagueness might have led to a misunderstanding somewhere along the line.“Do you think you could keep an eye out and give us a heads up if anyone comes this way?”“I suppose so,” said Jessamine doubtfully. “Anyone at all, even Professor Carstairs?”Magnus nodded.“Please? I'll owe you one.”He didn’t spend too much time thinking about what kind of favour Jessamine might need.The ghost agreed reluctantly, floating to a rest between the entrance to the infirmary and the girls' corridor, and Magnus pulled the curtain back in place.“How do you know Jessamine?” Alek asked.“She let me into Lidia's room once,” Magnus replied. Alek looked at him sharply and for some reason he felt the need to explain further. “We weren’t alone, your sister was there. And other people. All very platonic.”Alek lips twitched, and Magnus ignored the fluttering in his stomach, sitting sideways on his bed with his back against the wall.His words had reminded him that he and Alek were alone now. With only a thin curtain and a flighty ghost to separate them from the rest of the world, but alone nonetheless.He shook his head to stop those thoughts going too far before lighting the tip of the cigarette with a battered lighter.Alek watched as he took a long drag and exhaled through pursed lips. His eyes seemed to linger on Magnus’ mouth, and before he could think better of it, Magnus scooted over toward the pillow and tapped the covers next to him.Hesitantly, Alek climbed out of the bed and came to sit by his side, taking the proffered cigarette and looking at it suspiciously. He inhaled deeply, and Magnus raised his eyebrows a little.Clearly Alek wasn’t as naïve as he appeared.His mind replayed the scene from the library in excruciating detail for what felt like the thousandth time, and it took him a little too long to notice Alek was holding the cigarette for him to take back.He took another drag, his shoulders relaxing as he felt the familiar buzz, and then finally gave up.“Are we ever going to talk about it?”“About what?”Magnus heroically resisted rolling his eyes.“Paris, the library, last night in the forest… take your pick.”There was silence as Alek took the cigarette back and took his turn.“Do we have to?”Magnus might have punched him in the face if he hadn’t sounded so lost.“Yes, yes we do.” There was silence, and Magnus took a deep breath. “Question for a question?”Alek sighed, and then surprised Magnus by going first.“Why are you so mad at me?”“I–” he broke of with a huff of laughter. “I never know which Alek I’m going to get – the one who asks me on dates and tells me I’m pretty, or the one who barely acknowledges my existence.”Or the one who gets down on his knees after three glasses of wine, he added silently in his head. Fuck knows where that had come from.“We can’t always have what we want.”Magnus shook his head bitterly. Apparently not.“Last night you said you had to avoid me – why?”Alek watched him smoke the cigarette in silence. Magnus waited patiently.Eventually he sighed, running a hand through his hair.“After the feast, I ran into my dad on the way up to the common room. He saw us sitting together, noticed that I left after you, and came to find me to ask about it. If he’d been five minutes earlier…”He broke off, shaking his head, and Magnus swore under his breath.“He didn’t see anything though?”“No, but it was a stupid risk. I wasn’t thinking properly.” He accepted the cigarette Magnus was passing him and inhaled deeply.
“I had to avoid you for a while to take the heat off – hang around Lidia.”Magnus swallowed the lump in his throat.“He thinks you’re… dating, right?”Alek nodded glumly.“They’ve got my whole life planned out. When I graduate, I’ll sign up, go through basic, and a few years after that marry a nice pure-blood girl – at least if it were Lidia I’d have a friend.”“Does she know?”“That I’m gay? No.”“Aleksandr… this isn’t fair – not to her, not to me, not to yourself.”“I know.” Alek sighed, chewing on his lip again. “But it’s the only way I can join the army.”“What?”“Lots of people back home see homosexuality a mental disorder. Gay people aren’t technically banned from enlisting, but they’re encouraged to keep it to themselves.”“Don’t ask, don’t tell?” Alek nodded, and Magnus took a long drag. “But surely your dad wouldn’t–”“It wouldn’t matter. The school’s full of diplomats’ kids and legacy recruits – all it would take is the wrong person to hear a rumour.”Magnus offered Alek the end of the cigarette, processing the new information. It didn’t excuse Alek’s behaviour, but it did go some way to explaining it. He began rolling a second cigarette without asking – it was clear that both he and Alek were benefitting from the alihotsy.He watched Alek out the corner of his eye as he stubbed out the cigarette and then pressed it into the under side of his untouched bread. Someone must have taught him to smoke – not Izzy, but maybe Janek?“Some advice?” Alek nodded, accepting the fresh cigarette and a lighter. “What you’re doing now isn’t working.”“This isn’t Hogwarts, Magnus, no one’s going to throw a fucking pride parade.”Magnus raised his eyebrows and Alek muttered an apology.“I’m not saying you should come out – I don’t like it, but I get it – I’m saying we spend too much time together for you to completely ignore me.”“What do you mean?”
“Izzy asked me what was going on last night, and Klara's a lot more perceptive than she lets on.”“Nosy, you mean,” Alek said flatly, and Magnus elbowed him. Alek swallowed, clearly tense. “You can't– you didn’t–”“No,” Magnus said gently, putting a hand on his knee. “I wouldn’t do that, ever.”“So we should be friends?”“If you like.”The touch suddenly felt strangely intimate, and Magnus shifted away, turning so he was lying with his head on the pillow. His knees were drawn up, giving Alek space to stay.Something was still bothering him, niggling at the back of his mind, but he was finding it difficult to concentrate as the alihotsy really began to kick in. By the end of the second cigarette, his feet had somehow migrated onto Alek’s lap. Alek didn’t seem to mind, his hand resting on top of his leg while his thumb stroked the side of his calf.“Can I get a bonus question?”Alek raised an eyebrow.“After I saved your life?”Magnus batted his eyelashes, and the other boy shrugged, relenting.“The library – you do that to all the boys?”“No.”“But that wasn’t the first time.”He propped himself on his elbows, smirking a little as the Alek blushed and dropped his gaze.“No.”“Anyone I know?”Alek shook his head, his lips twisting into a wry smile.“Just the one guy, and he’s already graduated.”“I should send him a thank you letter,” Magnus said dropping back down, and Alek let out a dry chuckle.“You uh, had fun then?”“I believe I was pretty vocal on the matter.”Alek hummed, his thumb pressing a little deeper.Magnus made a noise in the back of his throat, and Alek's hand stilled.He cleared his throat.“You know, I wasn’t trying to– uh, make you uncomfortable. Yesterday, in the forest. I just wanted to talk.”“Pity.”“Magnus.”Alek choked back a laugh, his cheeks bright red again, and Magnus smirked.Suddenly he remembered what had been puzzling him.“Okay, here’s the real conundrum… if you were getting your rocks off before – on a regular basis if your expertise is anything to judge by – what’s to stop us from doing that now?”Alek blinked.“That was different, we were– it wasn’t so–”“We could be careful,” Magnus interrupted. “I mean, we have the training room booked out until the end of term.”The alihotsy was definitely doing part of the talking, but Alek seemed to be considering it.“And it wouldn’t bother you – that it would have to stay secret? That it couldn’t be a real relationship?”Magnus shrugged.“Relationships take effort. Maybe I need break.”There was silence as Alek chewed it over.“Are you sure?”Alek was watching him carefully, his fingers trailing up to Magnus’ knee.He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. The flannel pyjamas were thick, but even so Alek's touch seemed like fire on his skin.One more secret couldn’t hurt.The moment he nodded, Alek pushed his knees apart, his eyes dark, but Magnus put a hand on his arm, stopping him.“Isn’t it my turn?”“Getting a head start,” Alek replied with a lopsided grin.This time he knew it was coming, but still when Alek grabbed him by the hips he gasped at the touch, lifting a little off the bed. Without hesitation Alek pulled down the pyjamas and slid them off, leaving his legs exposed to the cool night air.He wasted no time getting down to business, hooking his arms around Magnus' legs and enveloping him with heat. He did something with his tongue – the same thing he’d done in the library – and once again Magnus had no control of the noise that came his mouth, or the way his hips jerked off the bed.Ever the quick learner, Alek held him down, fingers digging into his hips, as he did it again, and again, until Magnus thought he was about to explode.Past the point of words, he reached down to tug at Alek’s hair in lieu of begging him to ease off, but Alek caught his wrist and pinned it to the mattress instead.Magnus twisted his hand to brush at Alek's with his fingers, and after a moment Alek’s grip loosened so they could interlock fingers. Alek glanced up, flicking his tongue once more, and that was all it took to push him over the edge, another stream of curses rending the air as Alek swallowed diligently.When his breathing had slowed, Alek sat back, watching as Magnus groped half heartedly for the pyjama bottoms and redressed himself.“Fucking hell, that– ...what?”Magnus suddenly felt intensely vulnerable as he realised Alek was trying not to laugh.“Sorry, it’s just... if you were vocal in the library, what was that?”“Thorough appreciation of your skills,” Magnus replied, crossing his legs and narrowing his eyes at the other boy. “Maybe we should see what noises I can get out of you?”Alek stood up, shaking his head.“Don’t worry – it’s late, and I’m sure we’ve scandalised Jessamine enough.”Magnus winced. This certainly wasn’t going to help improve the ghost's impression of him.“I should probably go thank her,” he said, making his way to the curtain and trying to ignore the fact his knees were still a little liquid.When he returned, Alek was already curled up, on his way to sleep, and Magnus was hit by how young he looked. He made sure any evidence of the cigarettes had been cleared away, before climbing into his own bed and turning off the lamp between them.Before he drifted off to sleep, he rolled over to face the other bed.“Alek?”“Yeah?”“Don’t freak out on me, please.”There was a beat of silence before Alek replied.“I won’t.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Hey.”Magnus turned to see Alek had joined him at the stern of the ship, and gave him a warm smile.“Hello, stranger.”Alek came to lean against the railing next to him, and they watched the rest of the seventh years board in companionable silence. Somewhere beneath their feet, Izzy and Maia were already claiming hammocks, while Janek was helping Max carry his quidditch kit along the boarding bridge.“Sorry about cancelling tutoring again,” Alek said his voice low.“Don’t worry, you can make it up to me after to the match,” Magnus replied with an outrageous wink.He smirked as Alek turned a fetching shade of pink. Much to his disappointment, they hadn’t had time to fool around since the infirmary – not with Alek’s gruelling quidditch schedule.“You think the team’s ready?”“No doubt, it’s just...” he trailed off, sighing.“Max,” Magnus finished for him, and Alek nodded glumly.“He's just so young.”Any further discussion was cut short as the three accompanying teachers – Weasley, Carstairs and Safir – made their way onto the quarter deck.“Magnus,” grinned Weasley, overly chipper as usual. “Looking forward to seeing your old haunt?”Carstairs looked faintly amused as Magnus arched an eyebrow, but Weasley continued, unabashed.“It never leaves you, you know – there’s nowhere quite like it…”He was saved from having to reminisce by a loud clattering as Janek and Fedir drew in the boarding plank.Weasley jumped a little, seeming to remember why he was there. He squinted up at the crows nest, and then waved his wand at the sails, which billowed in a sudden breeze. Next to him, Carstairs began making a swirling motion toward the centre of the lake, and Safar ushered them down onto the weather deck.As they made their way toward the other Ledovskys, Magnus couldn’t help but notice the whirlpool that was forming in the centre of the lake.
“Please tell me we’re not headed where I think we are…”Alek shrugged apologetically, and the stream of expletives that left Magnus' lips was drowned out by Weasley’s voice as it boomed above their heads.“Ladies and gentlemen!”Magnus jumped back as ropes whipped across the deck in response to a flick from Weasley’s wand, forming a web of guidelines that lead to large open hatch with a staircase.“We will shortly be diving beneath the surface of the lake,” Weasley continued. “If, and only if, you are adept at performing the bubble head charm, you may stay on the weather deck for the descent - the ship is enchanted so you cannot be swept away, but you will need these ropes to stay upright.”“Ready to get wet?” Izzy asked with a wicked grin.Magnus shuddered involuntarily. Around them various seventh years were performing the bubble head charm on themselves, a tricky charm that he was impressed to see Maia and Izzy could perform with ease.Behind him, Alek and Max were having an argument as to whether the youngest Ledovsky could stay if someone did the charm for him.“I said no Max – it’s too dangerous, and if something went wrong, you wouldn’t be able to recast it yourself.”“But Janek and Izzy are right here–““–and they need to look after themselves, which they can’t do if they’re worrying about you.”Max folded his arms.“Janek used to go on trips all the time when he was little, and he was allowed be on deck.”“Yeah well, Karkaroff wasn’t exactly father of the year,” Alek snapped.There was a moment’s silence as he shot an apologetic glance to Janek, who simply shrugged.
“Sorry kiddo, he’s not wrong.”Max rolled his eyes and made one last mute appeal to Izzy, who simply shook her head.“Come on,” Alek said, grabbing him by the arm. “You’re going inside even if I have to take you myself.”Magnus watched as Max was dragged towards the hatch, still protesting. Somewhere near the hatch he managed to wrestle his arm free from Alek’s grasp and proceeded to storm down the steps by himself. Alek ran a hand through his hair, and then followed, looking exhausted.“What are the odds of them killing each other before we get to Hogwarts, do you think?” Izzy asked glumly.“I’ll go run interference if you want,” Magnus offered. “I think I had enough of the lake last weekend.”Izzy exchanged a wary glance with Janek.“You sure? Max can be a real pain when he’s in a mood.”“Don’t worry,” Magnus said with a wry smile. “I know how to deal with angry kids – I was one.”Izzy nodded, seemingly convinced, although Magnus suspected she mostly didn’t want to miss out on the excitement. As the ship began to pick up speed, he headed down the stairs after Alek & Max.Once his eyes had adjusted, he found himself in the ship’s dining area, a large room lit by an ambient glow and lined with wooden benches. He was confused to find neither Ledovsky in sight, until he noticed a ladder at the far end up the room. There was no daylight coming from the trapdoor above, and as he drew closer he could hear Alek attempting some kind of incantation, apparently unsuccessfully.“Visa aberto… no that’s not right…”Magnus climbed high enough to see Alek pointing his wand at a set of heavy curtains, which had begun smoking gently.“Watch out,” Magnus said from the ladder. “A fire on a wooden ship seems ill-advised.”Alek whipped his head around to see who had spoken and Max’s voice piped up from behind an armchair.“No shit Sherlock.”“Language, Max,” Alek admonished him, shooting Magnus a quick smile.After he’d climbed the remaining rungs of the ladder, he found himself in some kind of viewing gallery in the prow of the ship. Unfortunately, whatever view they might have had was blocked by the heavy curtains which lined the front and side walls of the room, leaving them in the same dim light as the canteen.“We’d be able to see fine if you’d just let me stay on the deck,” Max muttered, and Alek sighed in frustration as yet another spell fizzled out against the dark velvet.“Try visum aperio,” Magnus said, and as soon as Alek had spoken the incantation, the curtains draw back, letting broad daylight stream into the room.Through the widows, the lake was a churning mass of water, split by the line of the bowsprit which rose almost out of sight.
Max’s eyes grew wide as the ship creaked, and he almost leapt out of his chair to get a better look.“You’re welcome,” Alek said pointedly, but his brother wasn’t paying any attention, enthralled as the ship began to descend into the whirlpool.Magnus politely refrained from taking the credit.There was another alarming creak as the entire ship tilted and Magnus stumbled back. To his surprise, nothing fell off the coffee table, and all the furniture stayed in place.“Takes a while to get used to,” Alek said, raising his voice over the crash of water. “Pity we can't use sticking charms on our feet.”Magnus nodded mutely, his eyes inexorably drawn toward the swirling depths in front of them, and then nearly jumped out his skin Alek touched his arm."Are you okay?” Alek asked. Magnus tore his eyes away from the window to look at him.“Yeah, it’s just…“He trailed off, nodding awkwardly at the water. Alek might not know all the details, but surely he’d remember he was afraid of water.“Oh… shit sorry – I didn’t think.”Alek glanced toward Max, whose face was pressed against the glass. Even if he was listening, Magnus doubted they could be heard over the sounds of the lake.“Let me show you something.”Alek turned him around so they were looking at the back of the room, where a large map was framed by two wooden doors. He pointed at north-east Europe – beneath the Durmstrang crest was a perfect replica of the ship, its painted sails billowing in the wind.There was a loud crash and Max crowed in delight as water enveloped the sides of the ship, the room awash in bluish grey light.Magnus’ eyes darted to the windows, but Alek simply moved to block off his view and nodded back to the map.“Wait for it.”He swallowed thickly, trying to ignore the fading light coming from the windows, and focused on the image of the ship. It was clearly visible despite the gloom, its details glinting in burnished gold.He wasn’t sure what happened next.Almost at the exact same moment the air seemed to bend and twist in two, the image of the ship jumped from the blue that represented Lake Lynn to the edge of the Baltic Sea, and the thrashing of the water was suddenly silent.He looked around. The windows were dark on either side, but ahead a lantern hanging from the bowsprit shone into the water, illuminating the vast expanse.“Did… we just apparate?”Alek smiled as if his words were familiar.“Sort of – the ship does most of the work.”“And what, now we just sail through the night?”“Pretty much – there might be another jump to get through Kiel Canal.”Alek pointed to where Denmark jutted out from North Germany in response to Magnus’ blank stare.His accent had changed again, in the subtle way it did when he was speaking English, and Magnus realised they had left the translation filter.“It’ll be a while before we resurface – are you going to be okay?”Alek’s voice was low, his eyes impossibly soft. Magnus felt his heart flutter long pale fingers moved to brush almost imperceptibly against his own, tentative even though they were hidden from Max’s view.“Not like I have much of a choice.”Suddenly, the wooden door to his left was wrenched open and Alek jumped apart from him as Janek tumbled into the room, rivulets dripping onto the carpet.“Zdorovo!”Janek turned around, pulling Izzy up behind him, and then yanked the door shut behind them. It was hard to tell exactly what was happening on the weather deck, but judging from their sodden appearances and the spray that whipped through the room, it wasn’t pleasant.“Hey Magnus,” Janek said, pulling his jumper over his head and shaking his wet hair like a dog.Izzy shrieked as she was caught in the crossfire – though Magnus struggled to see how it could have made much difference – and then retaliated by throwing her own sweatshirt at his head.Alek said something in Russian under his breath and then stepped between them to prevent an all-out war, helping Izzy cast drying charms on her clothes. Max, having looked up in indignation at what Magnus assumed had been swearwords, came over to ask an endless stream of questions – not that Magnus could understand them.“Hey,” Janek interrupted, “let’s speak English now the filter’s dropped, yeah?” He flashed a grin, before adding “and no, I didn’t see any merpeople.”By the time Izzy’s clothes were dry, Janek was still working on his jeans. Alek glanced at him, but instead of helping he just shook his head, going to sit down instead.“Oi, where’s my help?” Janek asked with look of pure betrayal on his face.“You wouldn’t need any if you’d come in through the hatch like everyone else,” Alek replied, "It's fitted with a drying charm for a reason."Janek pulled a face."Much less fun though, plus the ladders are quicker.""How did you even get to them anyway – did you let go of the ropes?”“…maybe, but you helped Izzy, and she did the exact same thing!”“I was getting to that,” Alek said, turning his glare on his sister.“Before you get too mad,” she said, braiding her damp hair nonchalantly, “it was Janek’s idea.”“I know,” Alek said, flatly. “That’s why you got the help.”After Maia had emerged from down below, her clothes already dry, they whiled away the time before dinner playing cards, or rather picking cards up from the floor whenever then inevitably slid off the table. Bat was reading in his hammock, and Lidia had apparently been ordered to help heat up the broth for dinner, much to her indignation.Magnus was content to watch the card game from the side, but he couldn’t help his gaze from drifting toward the windows every now and again, or from jumping whenever there was movement in the shadows. He knew rationally it was floating debris and ordinary harmless marine life, but still he couldn’t bring himself to look too closely.After a while, Alek shut the curtains, telling Max it would help keep the room warmer. Magnus didn’t know if it was for him, but he was grateful all the same.It wasn’t until later, when everyone had gone to bed, that his thoughts returned to icy depths.Alek had been embarrassed to admit that while the rest of the students were squashed into humble quarters, hammocks stacked three apiece, he had a cabin to himself – another remnant from Krum. He’d offered it to Max, but Max had insisted he wanted to sleep with the rest of the team, and Janek & Bat had promised to look after him. Which left Magnus beneath a snoring Fedir and the burly seventh year who’d tried out for chaser, his hip resting against the ship’s wall and wide awake.Every time he shut his eyes, he was sure he could hear the rushing of water against the planks, or the faint knocking of debris. In his mind’s eye ghostly fingers and faces were just out of sight, waiting for an opportune moment.It was somewhere in the small hours of the morning – Magnus having at last reached a fitful sleep – when he awoken by a jet of water to the face.He’d been at a kind of impasse with Pangborn and his cronies in the past week. They didn’t want to admit they’d cornered Magnus by the lake, and neither Magnus nor Alek had wanted to tell the teachers what they’d been doing in the forest that late at night.Still, he’d been naive to hope the peace might last.What Pangborn hadn’t bargained for was that in his state of heightened anxiety, Magnus had slept with his wand in his hand.Almost before he could process what had happened Pangborn was thrown across the room in a flash of light, and half the seventh year boys were on their feet, trying to work out what was going on.Which, with Magnus soaking wet and Pangborn stiff as a board and out like a light, wasn’t too hard to do.Janek stopped Bat from going to fetch a professor, reminding him they were sleeping in shifts and taking it in turns to pilot the ship. Instead, Pangborn was left in a hammock to wake up by himself, and Magnus headed to the canteen, brushing aside any offers of help.When his clothes were dry, he returned to the viewing gallery, unwilling to see whether Pangborn had regained consciouness. He’d only just curled up on one end of the sofa when the trapdoor creaked, and a familiar face peered in.He raised his eyebrows.“Head boy duty?”“Something like that.”Alek climbed awkwardly into the room. He looked like he’d been sleeping, or at least rolling about in a bed – his hair was sticking up in all directions and he was wearing a faded jumper and some threadbare grey jogging bottoms. He was having some difficulty getting through the trapdoor, which turned out to be because he was holding a giant fur blanket under one arm.He offered the blanket to Magnus, who accepted without hesitation, and then used his wand to levitate the two mugs of hot chocolate he’d left at the bottom of the ladder.They drank them in silence, Magnus huddled in the blanket, Alek watching him cross-legged in an armchair. It was Magnus who spoke first.“How did you know I was here?”“Janek,” Alek replied. “He knew I had extra bedding in my room.”“He didn’t have to wake you.”“I don’t mind,” Alek said quickly. “I wasn’t getting much sleep anyway.”“Still worried about the match?”Alek nodded, and Magnus gave him a sympathetic smile.“What about you?”“Hmm?”“Janek said it happens a lot – Pangborn and the water – but this is the first time you’ve stunned him.”Magnus sighed.“I don’t know what happened – I hate being underwater, and I’d only just got to sleep–”“Well you can’t be nervous about the match.”“No,” Magnus said, smiling despite himself, “but I’m not particularly looking forward to seeing Hogwarts again.”Alek hummed thoughtfully, blowing on his hot chocolate.“It's the first time you've been back? Since...”He trailed off expectantly and Magnus chuckled.“Nice try...”He broke off into a huge yawn and Alek’s eyes softened again.“You should get some sleep.”He snorted, pulling the blanket further around him.“Which one of us is captaining a quidditch team tomorrow again?”Alek shook his head, evidently trying not to smile.“I’m too wound up to sleep.”He came across to retrieve Magnus’ mug and then stopped still as Magnus reached out a hand to keep him from leaving.“I could help with that, if you let me.”Magnus looked up, watching for a reaction.After a beat of silence, he pressed a lazy kiss against the thin cloth that covered Alek’s hipbone, to make sure his offer was clear, but Alek was motionless, his mouth half open as if he couldn’t work out what to say.“…or not,” Magnus continued, giving Alek’s thigh a light squeeze.He laid back down on the sofa, pulling the blanket on top of himself. Ordinarily he might have pushed it further, but even in his sleep-deprived state he could tell Alek had frozen up.After a while, Alek seemed to collect himself, opening the hatch and levitating the mugs to the tables below.Magnus had his eyes shut, for all appearances already asleep, but still Alek paused on the ladder before pulling the trapdoor shut behind him.“Good night, Magnus.”He didn’t wait for a response.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Magnus!!!”He'd barely taken two steps off the ship before he was nearly bowled over by a flying hug wearing red lipstick.“You don't call, you don’t write–““Alright alright,” he said, laughing, “I’m sorry okay?”He hugged the girl back tightly, ignoring the hair poking him from the handful of butterfly clips scattered across her head.“It's good to see you Lils, I missed you... and you,” he added, catching sight of a skinny boy leaning against a tree.The boy drew closer, squirming as Magnus ruffled his hair.“Must you?”“Rafael, it’s been too long.”Rafael scowled, but unusually didn’t bat his hand away.“Come eat lunch with us?” Lily asked, her eyes crinkling as she watched the two of them. “We’ve got a while ‘til we have to be on the pitch.”Magnus glanced behind him, toward where the rest of the Durmstrang students were milling about next to the lake. As Weasley finally disembarked, shouting for everyone to follow him to the great hall, he caught sight of Alek.He smiled, about to wave, but Alek looked quickly away, busying himself with quidditch gear.Perhaps he was embarrassed about last night, though Magnus couldn’t understand why he would be.“Oooh… I’d climb him like a tree,” Lily said, following his gaze.Magnus carefully schooled his face as Raphael audibly rolled his eyes.“Are we done here?”“What? I recognise hotness when I see it.”Raphael stalked off down the path toward the hall and Magnus and Lily fell in step behind him.“So.”Lily wiggled her eyebrows expectantly and Magnus rolled his eyes.“He’s straight Lily, very straight.”“Good to know, but I meant, what’s Durmstrang like - have they taught you any unforgivables?""It's not like that,” Magnus said, catching the door from the seventh year in front of him. “The headmistress – Vulchanova – she’s a friend of McGonagall’s, overhauled the complete curriculum.”He glanced to the high table as they entered the hall, but McGonagall’s seat was empty.“She’s away,” Raphael said curtly, and Magnus nodded.Weasley had let him know last week, but part of him had been expecting to see her all the same.They took their places on the Slytherin table, Magnus ignoring the whispers that came from his former housemates on the table next door. He’d never really belonged at the Ravenclaw table, but for the most part they’d put up with his indiscretions – especially given the house points he was awarded far outweighed those he lost.Judging from the sneer on Blackthorn’s face, expulsion was one indiscretion too far.Lunch passed quickly, Magnus answering a seemingly never-ending stream of questions from Lily about the professors, the castle and even the food.“Who's the child?”He raised an eyebrow at Rafael, who’d interrupted his tirade against pickled cabbages.“Sorry?”“With the glasses.”Raphael nodded over to the Gryffindor table, where the Ledovskys had taken up camp.“Oh, that’s Max.”“I take it he’s not here to network.”Magnus gave him a look.“No, he’s the seeker.”Lily snorted.“Seriously? Let me guess, daddy’s the coach.”“No… but his brother is the captain.”“Were all the adults unavailable?” Raphael asked dryly, and Magnus shook his head, laughing.“Don’t underestimate him – I watched him beat out a seventh year on a time trial.”“And the rest of the team, they’re… fully grown?” Lily asked, chewing on a potato wedge.“Yes,” Magnus replied, giving her a look. “Max is the youngest by a long way. They baby him – especially Alek – I don’t think he’s been let near a bludger all term.”As he was speaking, the conversation to their left ceased.“Alek,” Lily said, a glint in her eye. “That would be the captain… his big brother right?”“Yes,” said Magnus slowly, “why?”He looked to Raphael, who shrugged, and then turned to his left to find a familiar face – Zeke Russo, one of Slytherin’s best beaters.Zeke’s eyes flickered toward Raphael, as if looking for some kind of signal, and then he smirked.A horrible coldness began to grow in his stomach.“What was that?”“What?”His head whipped around to Raphael, and then back to Lily, a sense of unease growing.“What did you say to him? Were you–
why were you asking all those questions?”Lily shrugged.“Just curious… come on, you’re telling me they never asked you about us?”“Actually, they didn’t–““Idiotas…”“…maybe because they didn’t want to put me in an awkward position,” Magnus continued, glaring at Raphael. “Besides, I don’t even know who’s on the Hogwarts team–““Us, Zeke, Elliot, that asshole Blackthorn, his cousin in Hufflepuff, her weirdo boyfriend–”“Yes thank you Lily, I get the point.”Lily shrugged, lowering the fingers she'd been counting on.There was a tense silence.“What are you going to do?”Raphael didn’t respond, standing up from his half-finished plate.“Nothing you need to worry about.”He jerked his head and Lily and Zeke got to their feet. Lily blew him a kiss, mouthing sorry, and then they were gone, a handful of figures from the other houses following them out the hall.Magnus took a deep breath. He had to fix this.Over on the Gryffindor table, a pale boy with glasses and a messy fringe was talking animatedly to the Ledovskys, not that Alek seemed to be paying attention. He tried to catch his eye, but the head boy seemed to be lost in thought, staring at the half-eaten salad in front of him.By the time he’d made his way to the other side of the hall, the Durmstrang quidditch team were on their feet, apparently having decided to find the quidditch grounds themselves. He reached out to catch Alek’s arm.
“What?”Magnus was taken aback by the sharpness in Alek’s voice.“I need to talk to you–”“I’m a bit busy Magnus, I’ll find you after the match.”“But it’s about–”Magnus gave up as Alek shook his head abruptly, instructing the Gryffindor student to lead the way. The rest of the team followed, apart from Maia, who hung back.“Whatever you did to piss off Ledovsky, it couldn’t wait?” she asked in a low voice.Magnus sighed. Whatever the reason for Alek’s bad mood, it couldn’t be his conversation with Raphael. He might have lost Durmstrang the match before it had even started, but Alek didn’t know that yet.“I didn’t do anything – not on purpose, anyway. Maia, wait.”She paused, eyes flitting to where the rest of the team were leaving the hall.“Promise me you’ll watch out for Max, ok?”She gave him a strange look.“Okay... is something wrong?”“I don’t know – I’ve just got a bad feeling.”His bad feeling turned out to be correct, when within seconds of Madam Hooch's whistle Zeke sent a bludger whistling past Max's left ear. Only moments later, Elliot redirected a second so Max was forced to take a nose-dive toward the stands. Two more near misses and Alek yelled something to the Durmstrang beaters, making some kind of hand signal it was hard to see from a distance.He was trying to read Izzy’s lips as she yelled something to Alek when he realised the boy sitting next to him – the Gryffindor who’d led the Durmstrang team to the quidditch grounds – was talking to him.“Sorry… what did you say?”“Why is Max drawing so much attention? He's no way near the snitch.”“That's why,” Magnus said bleakly, as Bat and Maia left their positions mid field and flew to flank Max on either side.“...who are you again?”The boy laughed, and then looked confused when he realised Magnus wasn’t joking.“Magnus... it’s me, Simon. ...Simon Lewinsky? We sat next to each other in Defense Against the Dark Arts for three years!”Magnus squinted. He did look awfully familiar, but surely that was just because he’d seen him in the hall before.“...if you say so.”He turned back to the quidditch game, watching with a sense of growing defeat as Raphael's plan began to pay off.With all beaters focused on Max, the two teams of chasers were free to play against each other without external interference.The Hogwarts chasers were a lot less slick than their counterparts, which Magnus assumed was down to having rarely played together before – the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor teams had contributed a chaser apiece.Nonetheless, the Durmstrang team were falling behind. Both Izzy and Janek were trying to keep one eye on Max, and Lidia was struggling to keep their attention on the quaffle. Even worse, Alek, whose keeping had been so unshakable in the try-outs, was letting in far more shots than he should.By forty minutes into the match, when Safar called for a time-out, Hogwarts had a fifty-point lead, and Maia & Bat looked in bad shape.Magnus quickly made his way down the stands, hoping to hear what was going on. As he drew closer, he could hear Lidia’s voice over the fray.“What the hell is going on out there? Janek, I’ve never seen you miss so many opportunities, and I’m pretty sure you dropped the quaffle twice!”She directed the last part to Izzy, who had the grace to look ashamed. Safar was hanging back, letting the team manage themselves, but when no one was spoke, he folded his arms.“Well?”“They’re worried about me,” Max said bitterly, his chin raised in defiance.Three or four different people started speaking at once, until Alek yelled for quiet.“Of course we’re worried about you Max – the beaters have been on you since the start–““It’s insane,” Izzy interrupted, gripping her broom tight.“It’s like they knew he was our weakness,” said Janek.“Maybe they did,” Maia said, looking over to where Magnus was hovering by the stairs.He met her gaze uncomfortably, but Alek shook his head in exasperation.“It doesn’t matter what they knew – anyone can look at Max and see–”“And see what?” Max asked, a mixture of hurt and anger on his face.“…well, you’re the smallest of us,” Izzy said hesitantly.“And the weakest, right? That’s what you think.”“That’s not what I meant,” Janek said, but Max wasn’t having any of it.“You’re treating me like a child.”An argument in Russian broke out among the Ledovskys – Magnus was pretty certain at least one of them told Max he was a child – until Safar was forced to intervene.“If you can’t trust Max to defend himself, he shouldn’t be on the pitch.”Izzy sagged in visible relief, but the assistant coach shook his head. “You misunderstand me – Max can defend himself, but you need to trust him and let him do so.”Alex’s eyes were wide, his mouth open as if to argue back.“I can dodge the bludgers,” Max said. “Wasn’t that the point of all the practice with Maia and Bat?”“I can’t ask you to do that,” Alek replied. “Not when they’re being so aggressive – what if you got hurt?”“Maia’s already hurt,” Bat said evenly, “but you’re asking it of her.”Maia shot him a wary look, but the gash on her arm that Carstairs was healing spoke volumes.Alek looked conflicted.“So what – we leave Max to face the bludgers alone?”“Not alone,” Lidia said firmly. “Bat can stay, but Maia should redirect as much as she can to the chasers, and the rest of you need to focus.”She eyed the three older Ledovskys.“She’s right,” Janek said, placing a hand on Max’s shoulder. “Our weakness isn’t Max, it’s that we still see him as our baby brother.”Alek nodded, and plan was set.The chasers broke off to talk tactics as Safar left to see if the other team was ready, and Magnus had a moment to catch Alek’s attention.“Alek, I–”“That’s what you wanted to tell me,” he said, and Magnus nodded glumly.“Raphael’s smart – I only told him you were worried about Max. The rest was all him.”Alek shrugged.“I meant what I said – if he hadn’t learned it from you, it wouldn’t have taken him long to figure it out.”“Still, I’m sorry.”Alek shot a glance to Carstairs was out of earshot.“You should sit with us at dinner – Izzy smuggled the rest of the rum in her quidditch gear and she reckons she can get Simon to spike the butterbeer before it comes out.”Magnus looked over to where he’d been sitting to see the Gryffindor was watching them from above. As he watched, Izzy waved, and in his enthusiasm to wave back the boy somehow managed to knock his own glasses off.He imagined there wasn’t an awful lot Izzy couldn’t get him to do.
“Celebration or commiseration?”Before Alek could answer, Hooch’s whistle blasted and around them the players began taking to their brooms.When he returned to his seat, the boy had found his glasses and was opening a packet of sweets.“So… you and Alek seem pretty…”He trailed off as Magnus turned his head to stare at him.“…none of my business, yep, got it.”As it turned out, commiseration was the order of the evening.While the Durmstrang chasers had clawed their way into a forty-point lead, it turned out to be for naught when Lily spotted a flash of gold in the setting sunlight. Max had flown well, avoiding both bludgers with Bat’s help, but he was too pinned in to really give chase, and it didn’t take long for Lily to claim the snitch and victory for Hogwarts in one fell swoop.Durmstrang had lost their first game in the tournament, and as much as Alek might deny it, Magnus couldn’t help but feel he was to blame.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Magnus didn’t wait around to see Raphael and Lily after the match. He had no interest in rewarding their behaviour, even if it was the first time that he’d seen Lily play seeker.Instead, he made his way back to the ship to change his clothes and put on some makeup. They hadn’t been allowed to bring much with them, only a rucksack apiece, but
Aleksandr Ledovsky thought he looked nice with glittery cheekbones. And wasn’t it simply good manners to give the boy what he wanted?Not, of course, that he was entirely clear on what it was Alek wanted.Then again, with the match out of the way and the promise of rum-spiked butterbeer ahead of them, maybe tonight was the night he’d find out.He arrived at the castle just in time to see Izzy’s admirer emerge from the dungeons, and give an enthusiastic thumbs up to his raised eyebrows.“Which jug did you spike?”“Huh?”“You know, so we know where to sit.”“Oh.” The Gryffindor relaxed. “I did the one on the end, so we couldn’t miss it.”“…which end?”The boy looked blank, and
Magnus gave him a look.“Please tell me you didn’t spike the one two feet away from Longbottom. Even he’d notice that.”His eyes went comically wide for a moment, then he dashed back downstairs to the kitchens, leaving Magnus to enter the hall alone.It didn’t take him long to find Alek, who was waiting in a corner with Max and Janek. As he approached, he was scanning Max for injuries, looking for the slightest hint of a scratch or bruise.“He’s okay,” Alek said, answering his unasked question. “They couldn’t touch him after the interval.”Magnus breathed a sigh of relief, but turned to apologise to Max anyway.“I’m so sorry, and I’m furious with Elliot and Zeke – they should never have targeted you like that.”“They shouldn’t have,” Max agreed, “but I’m glad they did.”Judging by the reaction of his brothers – an eye roll from Alek and a brilliant grin from Janek – this wasn’t the first time he’d said so.“Why?”“At least now they know I can protect myself,” Max said, “and he can stop treating me like I’m made of glass.”He jerked his head toward Alek, who looked wholly unimpressed.Janek, on the other hand, looked every bit the proud brother as he clapped Max on the back.“You did great, and that move won’t work twice – we’ll be ready if we play them again.”“That could happen?” Magnus asked, looking between them.Alek nodded, his face set in determination.“Hogwarts will play Beauxbatons in January, and we’ll play the loser of that match in March.”“Don’t suppose you’ve been expelled from there too,” said Janek, grinning, and though Magnus laughed, he could feel his anxiety rise.Expelled, no. But they’d rejected his application.Twice.Luckily he was saved from explaining his fraught relationship with Madame Maxine by Carstairs, who wanted a word with the youngest Ledovsky.“Max, I was wondering if you’d like to sit with some of younger Gryffindors tonight?”Max looked up at Alek, who was frowning.“I could introduce you to my nephew,” Carstairs added, “he’s around your age.”He nodded to a dark-haired boy who was sat towards the middle of the Gryffindor table. He didn’t look very much like his uncle, but then again, it was unlikely an eleven-year-old would share Carstairs silver hair.
“Go on Alek,” Izzy said, “this way Max won’t want to try our butterbeer.”She gave her older brother a meaningful look and a nudge that wasn’t hard to interpret, and Alek capitulated, allowing Max to go off and join the first years.By the time they’d taken their seats – at the other end of the hall than the professors – Izzy’s admirer had returned from the dungeons, having made the switch. To Magnus’ surprise, he appeared to be on good terms with Janek, greeting him with a cross between a hug and a handshake that wouldn’t be out of place in a locker room.“So,” Izzy said, taking a large sip of the butterbeer she’d poured out before passing the jug on to Maia. “Simon, tell us everything you know about Magnus.”“Ooh yes,” Maia grinned “who are these crazy exes I keep hearing about?”“Guys, please...”“You know, if all of your exes are crazy, that might say more about you than it does them,” said Lidia matter-of-factly.“...just the one crazy ex,” Magnus amended hastily.“Why’d he really get expelled?”Magnus gave Alek a look of betrayal, but he simply shrugged, sipping his butterbeer.“Nobody knows what happened,” the Gryffindor replied, choosing to answer the last question, “just that after the house feast Magnus was gone, and his ex not long after that."“A partner in crime!”Izzy grinned in delight, and though Magnus groaned, inside he was grateful Flitwick’s charms seemed to have worked.“Don’t worry Magnus, you can tell us all of Simon’s embarrassing secrets later,” said Janek, nudging him in the ribs.Simon.The Gryffindor’s name was Simon – he should really remember that.“I would if I knew them,” Magnus muttered, “but I don’t really know him that well.”Izzy frowned.“He seems to know you.”“One time he punched me in the face. It was awesome.”Simon delivered the line in completely sincerity, and Magnus choked out a laugh at the Ledovskys' horrified expressions.“He’s quoting a film – I didn’t punch anyone…”“Wow,” Simon said, looking a little too pleased with himself. “When Klara said no muggle studies, she wasn’t kidding, huh.”From there the conversation moved on to the differences between Hogwarts and the Institute curriculums. Magnus was happy to sit back and let the others carry the conversation, only occasionally backing Simon up or adding an extra detail.When the desserts were put out, he felt something brush his ankle and nearly jumped out of his skin before he realised it was Alek. He was sitting opposite him, and must have stretched his legs out under the table.“Sorry,” Alek murmured, his eyes flitting to the left to check the others were still involved in their conversation. “I’m a bit sore from the match.”Magnus smiled and waved it off, for all intents and purposes engaged by Simon’s description of Gryffindor tower. A little while later, though, he moved his foot to press against Alek’s calf and was rewarded with a sharp inhale. He pressed harder, pulling down the length of the calf with the crook of his ankle, and Alek made an involuntary noise in the back of his throat that he was forced to play off as a cough.Magnus was debating how to (subtly) offer his services as masseuse when he was distracted by a movement on the other side of the hall. Raphael, who had been holding court on the Slytherin table, had been approached by Elias Dread, a third-year from Ravenclaw.He was only two years older than Max.“I’ll be right back,” he said in response to Alek’s questioning look as he rose to his feet.“Magnus, we’re leaving in twenty minutes – you’ll miss the ship.”He looked down at Alek, who looked faintly irritated, and smiled.“Don’t worry – I’ll meet you there, and then we can… finish our conversation.”If anyone noticed he and Alek hadn’t said more than a few words to each other during dinner, they were polite enough not to point it out.By the time he’d caught up to Raphael and Elias, they were at the edge of the courtyard in hushed conversation. He sucked in a sharp breath as he saw Elias was holding a package wrapped in brown paper.“You’re selling to third years now?”“Keep your voice down,” Raphael hissed. Elias whipped his head around and relaxed fractionally when he recognised Magnus.“Go inside Elias,” Magnus said, seizing the paper bag. “You don’t want to get involved in this.”Elias opened his mouth as if to say something, but clearly thought better of it. As he hurried back to the hall, Magnus opened the bag and stared in disbelief. There had to be well over fifty alihotsy leaves, a sizable sachet of what looked like powdered dragon’s claw and a few packets of cigarettes for good measure.“He’s dealing for you?”“If you can’t keep your voice down, at least come away from the hall.”Raphael snatched the paper bag back and stalked off towards the stairs that descended to the dock, pausing to sit on a wall half-way down. Magnus followed, simmering with barely contained frustration.“What the fuck is wrong with you Raphael? First Max and now this–”“Oh please.” Raphael folded his arms, a sneer on his face. “Camille was dealing to the lower school for years before you grew a conscience – what did you think would happen when she left?”“Camille did a lot of things I didn’t agree with,” Magnus snapped. “I thought you were better.”“I am. I put an end to all the off-the-books acquisitions, the rituals, all of it.”Magnus had a niggling feeling those decisions had been born of necessity rather than any moral principles.“So now you’re only coercing thirteen-year-olds into selling party drugs and study aids – congratulations.”“Elias isn’t dealing for me.”Magnus laughed aloud.“Raphael, I'm not an idiot–"“He was making a delivery.”Magnus folded his arms, waiting for an explanation. Raphael rolled his eyes, but complied.“Ever since you and Camille left, we’ve had trouble with supply. Nobody can get into the passages without being seen, and McGonagall’s started inspecting everyone on their way back from Hogsmeade.”“So?”“Elias has just come back from visiting his sister in St Mungo’s – accident with a toy broom -”“Is she okay?”“How should I know? I paid him to pick up a package from one of Camille’s contacts while he was there. As usual, you jumped to conclusions.”Magnus exhaled forcefully through his nose.“And Max? What was that about?”“Nothing. I saw an opening and I took it.”“Bullshit.”Raphael scowled but Magnus wasn’t backing down.“You used me, our friendship, and you risked seriously hurting a child for what, a quidditch tournament?”“Do you want me to feel guilty?”“Don’t you?”Raphael shook his head, his lip curling up into a bitter smile.
“What is it you and Catarina used to call me – the Slytherin with a conscience? Guess you were wrong after all.”“I don’t believe you.”“Spare me the lecture–”“No, I mean I don’t believe you.”Raphael was ruthless, but he wouldn’t have put a child in danger unless he had a good reason.
“What would you do if someone came for Ernesto like that, or Miguel?”Raphael paused.“They would not live long.”“So why is Max any different?”He dropped his gaze, his lips reforming into a tight line.“I am sorry… for putting the boy in danger. I did not like it, but it had to be done.”“Why?”Raphael looked up, his eyes hard.
“I needed to see Camille.”Magnus sighed, taking a seat on the wall a little while away from Raphael. It wasn’t a great explanation, but at least it made sense. Camille’s parents had got her into Beauxbatons after she was asked to leave Hogwarts. Raphael winning the match meant she would return to Hogwarts in January.“You haven’t heard from her?”Raphael shook his head.“Nothing – have you?”Magnus let out a huff of laughter.“No.”“She owes me money – not a lot to her but a great deal to me.”“Did she clear out the storeroom before she left?”Raphael shook his head. Camille was the only one that had been able to open their storeroom – for a long time Magnus hadn’t even known where it was. There must be hundreds of galleons in supply there, not to mention the lion’s share of last year’s profits.“I’m sorry Raph,” Magnus said, his compassion winning out. Raphael had always sent his share of the profits to his mother in Madrid, to help take care of his brothers. Without his help, Guadalupe would be struggling.He laid a hand on Raphael’s knee, and then glanced up as someone came down the stairs.Alek stood staring at them, his face devoid of emotion. Magnus snatched his hand back, but it was too late.“Alek, I–““The others won’t be long,” he said brusquely, turning to continue down to the ship.Great.Raphael was wearing a faintly amused smirk.“Your head boy does not appear so straight.”“Fuck off Raphael.”“Was it a date, does he like me, what should I wear to our wedding…”Raphael’s voice was pitched unnaturally high in what was probably meant to be an impersonation of Magnus. He was going to kill Ragnor.“You know for two people who claim to detest the subject, you and Ragnor seem to talk an awful lot about my love life.”“Have you kissed him yet? We’re just dying to know.”“Bye Raphael,” Magnus said loudly as the rest of the Durmstrang students began to trickle down the stairs. Thankfully Raphael dropped the subject.“Give my love to Lily?”Raphael nodded, and then clasped Magnus’ forearm in a movement strangely reminiscent of Simon. It was as close to a hug as he got.He watched Raphael climb back up to the castle for a moment before turning back to the ship. The sun had long since set, but there was light seeping through the cracks in the curtains of the viewing gallery.Since there was little to no lighting on the weather deck, Weasley announced everyone was to be inside for the descent, much to the students’ disappointment. Magnus stayed around long enough to see Janek take Max to bed and the girls head to their bunks before he made his move.Among the chaos and hidden by the shadow of the sail, he climbed the ladder to the side of the hatch, slipping into the viewing gallery before anyone could notice.Alek looked up as he entered, and then stared moodily down at the book in his lap. He was sitting in an armchair facing the door, apparently reading a book of German fairytales, although it didn’t look like he’d made much progress.“So, Raphael.”Alek pronounced the name with some distaste, which Magnus couldn’t really blame him for.“Look, I shouldn’t have spoken to him – not after the way he went after Max. But he’s not always a complete ass, and we’ve been friends a long time.”“That’s not– I’m not–“
He shook his head, exhaling forcefully, but keeping his eyes trained on the book.“When you say friends, do you mean...”Magnus’ eyebrows shot up. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who could jump to conclusions.“Friends. Very platonic friends.”“So you two never–”“Never.”Magnus might have felt a little guilty about his vehemence if he wasn’t sure Raphael would be equally horrified.There was a pause.“I thought– you looked close, that’s all.”Magnus stepped forward.“We were, are even. His family used to come to mass at the church the orphanage was attached to in Madrid. When McGonagall offered me a place at Hogwarts, I refused to go unless he could come too.”He smiled at the memory, although he declined to tell Alek that Raphael hadn't spoken to him for weeks afterwards, adamant that he wouldn’t leave his family. He’d only agreed when McGonagall told him that he could hurt his brothers if he didn’t learn to control his magic.Alek hummed, returning to the same page he’d been reading since Magnus arrived.Something clicked into place.“...were you jealous?”“What? No.”Alek closed the book with a snap and stood up, moving past Magnus to put the book on the shelves underneath the map. He was avoiding looking Magnus in the eye, but he couldn’t stop the blush creeping across his cheeks.“You were,” Magnus said, breaking into a delighted smile.As Alek straightened up, his mouth open to deny it, there was a lurch and Magnus was thrown against him.The sounds around them died down and Magnus pulled back a little, trying to apologise through laughter. Alek didn’t move his hands from where he’d caught at Magnus’ waist, holding him steady.They were close – closer than they’d been in a long time, and Alek’s eyes were travelling over every dip and line on his face, lingering on the glitter.
“You know,” said Magnus, his voice low. “Earlier Raphael asked me if I’d kissed you, and I realised I hadn’t. Isn’t that strange?”Alek jolted back, his eyes flicking up.“You told him–““No, no,” Magnus said, reaching out to draw him close again. “He doesn’t know about... this. He just knows my type.”Alek blushed again, and he traced it with his thumb, marvelling at the colour.“Would you like me to?” he asked softly.Alek swallowed.“I... what?”“To kiss you, I mean.”He moved his thumb to stroke the edge of Alek’s lower lip, but Alek was motionless, barely breathing.“Alek? Is something wrong?”“I– I don't know.”It was like a bucket of ice water had been thrown over him.“Oh.”He drew back, his mind racing.He’d thought it had been mere coincidence that they’d never kissed him – after all, Alek had always been interested in... other things.Except that was all Alek was interested in, he realised with a gut-wrenching twist.Hadn’t he said as much?“Magnus, I–”He stepped back, flashing a quick smile.“I... misunderstood. I'm sorry.”“Wait, what?”Magnus shook his head and moved backwards, unable to answer.He’d let himself think this was something more – that Alek was as drawn to him as Magnus was in return – when it was no more than an arrangement of convenience.“Magnus, what’s going on?”Alek looked bewildered, hurt even, but Magnus didn’t have the heart to stay.“It doesn’t matter, really – I should be getting back to the hammocks,” he said, fumbling for the handle behind him.“But you can’t– wait!”He had just enough time to look up before the handle was ripped from his grasp and he was torn bodily from the room by a maelstrom of wind and water.Somehow he’d forgotten they’d already started their journey back to the institute, hundreds of meters under the North Sea.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
He hit the deck with a bang, slamming his forearm on something hard. Water was cascading down the front of the ship, pummelling his back and pinning him to the deck. He gasped in pain, and choked as it rushed into his mouth, icy cold.As he was struggling to find purchase on the slick deck, he felt a ball of heat sink into the back of his neck. He tensed up, panicking, only to realise a bubble of air was forming around his nose and mouth.Alek.Sucking in a deep breath, he pushed himself up on one elbow and looked around.Alek was barely two feet in front of him, one arm wrapped around the bottom of the ladder. He’d somehow had time to bind his wand and was reaching the other hand out to Magnus. He took hold of Alek’s hand and pulled himself upright, and then, somewhat to his embarrassment, buried his face in the crook of Alek’s neck.It was warm and solid, and it was Alek.“Magnus… Magnus, look at me.”Alek looked every inch the soldier – calm in a crisis even though his eyes were flashing with fear.“Do you have your wand?”Magnus checked his pockets and his stomach sank.“No, it’s somewhere on the deck.”“Okay, we’ll have to be fast – I don’t know how long I can hold both charms. Can you climb the ladder?”Magnus shook his head.“I think my wrist is broken.”Alek frowned, his eyes darting around the deck.“There’s no way we’re getting the hatch open, so we’ll have to get to the stern.”Magnus looked toward the back of the ship. It was difficult to see much further than the mast a few feet in front of them, but he was pretty sure there was a rope knocking against it in the current.“I think the guide ropes are still up – look, there’s one there.”“They won’t be much use to you, not with a broken wrist.”“So go without me,” said Magnus, steeling himself. “Once you get to whoever’s steering the ship, you can ask them to open the hatch.”“No way,” Alek said, “I’m not leaving you alone.”Magnus shut his eyes.
“Fine. We go together.”Alek wrapped his arm around Magnus’ waist, and Magnus managed to sling his good arm over the other boy’s shoulder.“Ready?” Alek yelled, and Magnus nodded, cradling his wrist against his chest.Alek let go of the ladder and they were flung forward with alarming speed. It was only Alek’s iron-tight grip that stopped Magnus from hitting the deck as his feet were nearly swept out from underneath him.
Somehow, Alek had caught the guide rope and swung his weight around to brace against it. From there he used his free arm to pull them along the rope. When they reached the stairs to the quarter deck, Magnus looked up to the ship’s wheel. It was Safar at the helm, but with all his attention fixed on the waters ahead, he hadn’t yet noticed them.Alek turned his head to speak into Magnus’ ear.“One last push – are you ready?”Magnus nodded, but instead of climbing the stairs to Safar, as he’d expected, Alek launched them through the nearest door.The door slammed shut behind them, and Magnus clung to Alek’s shoulder to keep upright.They were in a small room that was furnished with an armchair and a neatly made bed. Alek’s cabin, he realised, spotting the quidditch bag in the corner.“What happened to getting Safar to open the hatch?”“We wouldn’t have made it back, and my cabin was right there,” Alek replied, stripping off his wet shirt and grabbing a pair of towels from the end of the bed.Even if Magnus had known what to say, he would have struggled to form a sentence.“Is that okay?” Alek said, sounding a little unsure.He wanted to say no. Spending the night with someone he had feelings for when he’d just found out those feelings were unrequited wasn’t exactly his idea of fun, even if Alek did have the abs of a minor Greek god.Instead, he mutely took the towel Alek was offering, and began to dry his hair as Alek opened the drawers of the nightstand. He produced a t-shirt and jogging bottoms, which he threw toward Magnus, and then a pair of striped pyjamas bottoms that he changed into at lightning speed.“Alek,” Magnus finally managed to say.He turned around, and then swore.“Your wrist, sorry I forgot. Do you need to borrow my wand?”“I– um, sure.”Alek passed him the wand and watched as Magnus cast a few experimental sparks and then reset his wrist, sighing as the pain eased.“Where’d you learn that?”“My friend Cat,” he answered, with a sad smile.Cat who knew how this would end long before he did.He looked around, searching for an exit, and spotted the trap door at the foot of the bed.Of course – Alek hadn’t come from outside last night.“I should go, Aleksandr.”There was a silence.“If that’s what you want.”He sounded hurt, but Magnus was too tired to care anymore.“It doesn’t matter what I want.”“Of course it does–““No it doesn’t,” Magnus said bitterly, “because what I want is for you to feel the same way as I do, and you don’t.”“What are you talking about?”“I fucked up, okay? I like you, and I thought for a moment that… you liked me.”“I do,” Alek said, looking completely lost.“No you don’t,” Magnus replied with a sad smile.Alek grabbed his arm, pulling him closer.“Look, I know I’m bad at… all of this, but I like you. A lot.” He shook his head helplessly. “How can you not know that?”“Then why didn’t you kiss me?”To his embarrassment, he couldn’t keep the hurt from his voice.“Magnus…”Magnus shook his arm free.“Don’t.”“Please, let me explain.”Magnus sighed, steeling himself for what he had to say.“Sometimes this happens,” he began, “when you’re still working out your sexuality…”“What?”He carried on, ignoring Alek’s interruptions.“…and you don’t have a lot of options…”“That’s not what this is–”“…but just because you’re my type doesn’t mean I’m yours…”“Magnus.”“…it doesn’t work like that…”“Chert voz'mi...”“…and it’s not your fault–“
His speech was cut short as Alek grabbed his sodden shirt and smashed their mouths together.Magnus blinked.Alek looked a lot more annoyed than he’d expected.“What was that for?”“To shut you up,” he said hotly, “and because you’re wrong.”“I don’t understand.”“I wanted to kiss you, before – you have to believe that,” Alek said, his eyes searching Magnus’ face. He was still holding onto his shirt, although not as tightly as he had been.Magnus sighed, and began unbuttoning his shirt.“...what are you doing?”“If we’re going to talk, I’d rather be in dry clothes,” he said, trying not to enjoy Alek’s obvious panic. “Maybe you could put on a shirt too?”“Oh... right.”Alek stepped back, opening the drawer again and digging out another t-shirt. He looked up just as Magnus was unbuttoning his jeans.“I’ll just... uh, tea?”“Sure,” said Magnus, the ghost of a smirk crossing his lips.He knew Alek liked his body. He just wasn’t convinced he liked him.
By the time Alek returned, passing one of the mugs up through the hatch, Magnus had borrowed his wand to dry their clothes and drawn the armchair closer to the bed.As he ensconced himself in the chair, Alek laid back on the bed with a wince and Magnus felt a twinge of guilt – pulling him across a deck probably hadn’t helped his sore muscles.Alek sipped his tea, waiting for Magnus to begin.“Earlier, in the gallery, if you wanted to kiss me, why didn’t you?”Alek sighed.“Sometimes when we’re… doing stuff, everything happens so fast, and I just freeze…”Magnus remembered the night before, in the viewing gallery, how Alek had frozen at his touch. He should have known something was wrong.“Is it something I did?”“No, it’s not you,” Alek said quickly, “and it’s not that I don’t want to – it's just... a lot.”Magnus frowned, taking a sip of his tea. It was true that the two of them tended to move quick – there was a reason he wasn’t sitting on the bed – but Alek hadn’t exactly been shy.“But in the library, and the infirmary, you didn’t freeze then.”“Well I know how to do that.”Magnus raised an eyebrow and Alek flushed, though he looked more than a little pleased with himself.“It’s everything else that’s the problem.”Magnus looked at him, confused, until he remembered Alek never let him reciprocate.“You mean…”“I’ve never done it before,” Alek admitted, flushing a deep red, “any of it.”Magnus blinked at him, trying to reconcile what he was hearing with what he already knew."Is... that a problem?” Alek asked, looking intensely vulnerable, and Magnus realised he hadn’t responded.“No. Of course not, I just– what about with your ex?”“My ex?”“You know, the guy who graduated.”“Oh. That wasn’t– we never– it wasn’t like that,” Alek muttered, staring into his tea.“Well... what was it like?”Alek hesitated, looking uncomfortable.“You don’t have to tell me, but I think it would help me understand,” said Magnus, his eyes soft.Alek took a deep breath, and then drained the last of his tea.“It started when I was in fourth year, and I started playing in the quidditch league. All the teams used to shower together after practice, and one day, he caught me looking.”“At him?”“No, at–”Alek broke off, looking nauseous.Suddenly Magnus remembered the way Alek had reacted when he’d joked about him and Janek.He leant forward, putting his hand on top of Alek’s.“Aleksandr, nothing you say will leave this room. You can trust me.”He nodded, swallowing.“He said I was disgusting, and that he’d tell everyone, tell him, unless I…”“Oh Alek.”“No, you don’t understand,” Alek said, shaking his head. “It wasn’t that bad.”Magnus squeezed his hand, staying silent.“I mean, it was horrible at first – I threw up once – but after a while, I got used to it, and, well ...I liked it.”Magnus’ heart broke a little at the shame in his voice.“Alek, you were what, fourteen? How old was he?”Alek’s eyes shifted.“Sixteen.”“And how long did he–”He broke off, not wanting to say the words aloud.“Two years,” Alek said softly. “Until he graduated. I got a lot of practice.”He looked up with a rueful smile.“Alek... I’m so sorry.”“Don’t be, honestly, it wasn’t that bad.”Magnus stood up abruptly, shifting his weight onto the bed and pulling him into a hug.“Magnus, I’m fine.”“Shh.”He hugged him tighter, ignoring the awkward angle. After a moment, Alek relaxed, burying his nose in his hair.“Are you done yet?”“Nope.”Alek let out a huff of laughter and ran his hand up and down Magnus’ back. When Magnus let him go, he looked no less nervous, but he let Magnus keep a hand on his knee.“I wish you’d told me earlier.”“Why, so you’d have known not to bother?”Magnus gave him a look.“It wouldn’t have stopped me, but I’d have been more careful, and I wouldn’t have let things... move so quickly.”Alek snorted.“I wasn’t exactly complaining.”“I know, but darling, you deserve so much more than footsie and some very one-sided fooling around.”“I told you, that’s all this can be,” Alek muttered.“No, you told me this couldn’t be a relationship.”Alek looked at him petulantly.“Just, hear me out,” Magnus said softly, running his hand up and down Alek’s leg. “If we like each other, and you’re not opposed to it, there’s no reason why we can’t have some fun.”“Isn’t that what we were doing?”“As I seem to recall, I had a lot of fun. You, on the other hand…”“You don’t have to do that,” he said hastily.“Do what?”“Anything for… me.”“Okay, but I’d like to, one day. And I’d like to kiss you, and hold you, and generally make you feel good.” As he was speaking, Magnus lowered his voice, Alek hanging on his every word. “Would you like that?”Alek swallowed, his eyes darkening, and then nodded.“But I don’t know how to do… any of that.”“I can show you,” Magnus said softly. “We can go slow – as slow as you need – and if you freeze up, we stop, and we talk about it.”Alek sighed, running a hand through his hair.“That… sounds like a lot of effort. Why would you do that for me?”“Because I like you, and it’s no fun for me unless you’re enjoying yourself too.”Alek ducked his head, hiding a smile.“I don’t know, sounded like you were having fun to me…”Magnus grinned.“I’m not going to pretend there’s nothing in this for me, but trust me, it’s better when it’s mutual.”Alek choked back a laugh, and then hesitated, chewing his lip.“I wish I’d met you first. Before him.”Magnus sighed, his heart aching for the boy Alek had been.“I’ll let you in on a secret – you get to decide who and what counts as your first. If you didn’t like it, if you can’t remember it, if it wasn’t with someone you trusted, then it doesn’t count.”Alek looked confused.“But it’s still the first time you… did whatever you did. You can’t change that.”“No, but you can decide whether or not you give that any meaning.”He stood up, holding out a hand.“Come here.”Alek got to his feet, letting himself be pulled into place opposite Magnus.“When you kissed me before, was that was the first time you’d ever kissed someone?”He nodded, and Magnus smiled softly.“Verdict?”“…I was mostly trying to shut you up.”He chuckled, leaning forward to brush the side of Alek’s nose with his own.“I think we can do better than that…”His lips were a hair’s breadth away from Alek’s, but he didn’t close the distance, not at first. They stayed still for a moment, their breath intermingling, and then at the same time Alek’s hands came up to tug at his waist, he used his fingers to tilt Alek’s chin up and they were kissing.It was soft, and sweet, and an ocean apart from the desperate crush before. Alek tasted like butterscotch, and Magnus used everything he knew to open him up, cradling his jaw as he worked his way into his mouth. As he relaxed into the kiss, Alek wrapped his arms around him, pulling their bodies tighter and tighter together.He’d just begun to work his hands into Alek’s hair when Alek made a humming noise, grabbing his wrists and pulling them to his neck. He pulled back, resting his forehead against Alek’s as he caught his breath.
“Better?”Alek laughed, chasing his lips for more.“Definite first kiss material.”They stayed like that for a while, their kisses lingering and becoming gradually more involved until, in the interests of taking things slow, Magnus left for his hammock.Janek rolled over as he entered the room where the boys were sleeping, squinted a little, and then went back to sleep.It was only later that Magnus realised he was still wearing Alek’s clothes.
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“I have to go.”“Mmhmm.”Magnus smiled against the kiss, powerless to resist.“Alek, I’m serious–”“Okay.”Magnus gave him a look as Alek showed absolutely no sign of loosening the arms he had wrapped around his waist.“I’m already late– oh.”He broke off into a sharp gasp as Alek began pressing kisses down the side of his jaw, stubble scraping across sensitive skin. He groaned, pressing his palms flat on Alek’s chest to give himself some space.“Alek... fuck.”Alek pulled back, quirking an eyebrow, and Magnus brought a palm up to cup his jaw, running his thumb across the prickly texture.He’d never seen Alek anything less than freshly shaven.It would just his luck for this delightful discovery to come on the last day of term, when Weasley was waiting for him in his office.
“Oh, that,” Alek murmured. “Don’t worry – I’ll shave before the feast.”“Don’t you fucking dare.”Alek’s smile broadened into a grin, and he looked so adorably pleased with himself Magnus had no choice but to kiss him some more.“Thought you were late,” Alek mumbled against him.In lieu of a response, Magnus seized his face and pressed his tongue into his mouth.By the time he left the supply closet he was a solid twenty minutes late, not that he had any regrets. Since Alek had confessed his inexperience, what they had together had taken on an air of innocence – brushing fingers under desks, stolen kisses in between classes, and tutoring sessions that involved rather a lot more making out than was strictly necessary.It was intoxicating, and more than that, it was fun.Provided he ignored the ache that came as he watched Alek experience it all anew, that was.He was in such a hurry to get to Weasley’s office that he didn’t bother knocking, much to his regret. Weasley was leaning on the side of his desk, looking utterly besotted as he gazed up at MacMillan, who was standing a little closer than was strictly polite.“Ah, Magnus. I was rather hoping you might have forgotten,” she said as she looked over, a wry smile on her face.“Sorry, am I interrupting?”He looked to Weasley, who face had turned an odd shade of salmon, though he looked as if he’d barely noticed Magnus’ presence. There was an awkward silence as Weasley simply stared at MacMillan, her words apparently having rendered him speechless.“…Not at all,” MacMillan said, taking a step back and smiling brightly. “Percy was just wondering if you’d reconsidered your Christmas plans.”
“Oh.”Magnus hesitated, trying not to sound ungrateful. Weasley had been trying to persuade him to spend Christmas at the burrow for the past month, without success.
“Honestly professor, I don’t mind staying here – I wouldn’t want to intrude.”“Would it help to know I’ll be there too?” MacMillan asked gently.Magnus struggled to keep a straight face.“Meeting the family already?” he asked, looking to Weasley innocently.“It’s not– I don’t– her parents are travelling.”Weasley looked visibly flustered as he stood up from his desk, and MacMillan shot him amused glance before turning back to Magnus.“It’s not too late to change your mind.”Weasley nodded, having collected himself a little.
“My mum would love to see you – she’s been asking how you are.”Magnus felt a pang of guilt at that. Molly had tried to take him under his wing, just as she had every waif and stray that came across her path. But he’d always felt like the odd one out among the Weasleys at large, despite their attempts to include him. He wasn’t a plus one, or a cousin, or even a friend – he was just work that Percy had brought home.“I think I’d rather stay here, but thanks anyway.”MacMillan sighed, stepping forward to squeeze his shoulder.“You won’t be alone – Jem and Tessa are staying, although I suppose they’re Professor Carstairs and Ms Gray to you.”“And Vulchanova,” Weasley added, “so no jumping into the lake.”“I didn’t–“Magnus pressed his tongue against his teeth, shaking his head as MacMillan’s eyes twinkled with laughter. He was pretty certain his midnight swim had hindered any chance of getting permission to go to Ydrys next term.“You’ll be at the feast later?”
Weasley asked.“Yes sir,” Magnus replied, grateful for the change in subject. Klara had told him the feast of Kračun marked the end of term, and with it the shortest day of the year. Apparently, like most Volkhv holidays, it involved eating a lot of a food.
“Then we’ll see you there.”He was nearly out the door when MacMillan called out to him.“Oh and Magnus, happy birthday.”His smile faltered and his head snapped back.“…how’d you find out?”MacMillan gave him an odd look and looked toward Weasley.“It was on the guardianship papers – why?”He should have seen that one coming.And after he’d made it almost the whole day without anyone finding out.“Birthdays aren’t really my… thing.” He shrugged, trying to feign indifference. “It’s just another day, after all.”MacMillan looked confused.“But you ought to do something to celebrate–”“All I want is go to the feast with my friends,” he interrupted, his tone leaving no room for argument.There was a beat of silence as Weasley looked at him with an expression Magnus couldn’t decipher.“Have you told them? Your friends I mean.”He shook his head, dropping his gaze.MacMillan opened her mouth, but Weasley put a hand on the small of her back to stop her.“Then we won’t mention it to anyone else.”His relief must have been evident, as MacMillan didn’t put up much of a fight.As he shut the door behind him, he wondered if Weasley might have put two and two together. It wouldn’t be difficult, not if McGonagall had told him how he’d ended up in the orphanage.“But why?”He nearly jumped out of his skin as he turned to his left and found himself mere centimetres away from Jessamine.“Sh– fuck. Fuck. You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.... and why what?”“Why don’t you want anyone to know it’s your birthday?”He looked at her sharply.“It’s rude to eavesdrop.”Jessamine shrugged, looking not the least bit apologetic.“I have a favour to ask you.”“Oh. Right.”He’d forgotten he owed her one.He set off down the empty corridor, Jessamine bobbing alongside him.“On Kračun it’s tradition to light fires by the graves of those we’ve lost,” she began, clearly taking his silence as agreement.
“There aren’t any fires allowed in the castle grounds of course, but there’ll be one by the lake for Will.”“Who’s Will?”Jessamine looked at him strangely, and then shook her head as if to dismiss the thought.“He was married to Ms Gray.”Magnus sucked in a little breath. He hadn’t known she was a widow, but that explained why she never talked about her husband.“Did you know him?”“Of course! He was an absolute beast – I never did understand how she fell in love with him – but…” she trailed off, slowing down as they approached the stairs. “I suppose he did save my life.”Magnus blinked.Jessamine couldn’t have been much older than twenty, so clearly that hadn’t lasted long.“So, what’s the favour?”“I’d like you to go in my place.”“Go where?”She cast her gaze to the window, where twilight had turned to dusk.“To the lake – they’ll be lighting the fire as soon as it’s dark.”Magnus balked.“How am I supposed to get there and back before the feast? Wouldn’t be easier for you to just…”He trailed off, not quite sure how ghosts travelled.“I can’t leave the castle grounds,” Jessamine said brusquely, drifting to block the stairs. “Besides, you owe me, remember?”“But–”“If you don’t want to go, perhaps I should tell Miss Bronowski how a certain head boy–”“Fine,” Magnus said hastily, “I’ll go.”A look of smug satisfaction flashed briefly on the ghost’s face before it was replaced with her usual blank haughtiness.“Then you may consider your debt repaid.”By the time he’d picked up a jacket from his room and slipped out the west gate, the shadows had turned pitch black.He made his way down the path that led around the lake by the light of his wand, keeping an eye out for anyone who might recognise him – Vulchanova wouldn’t be pleased if he was spotted outside the castle.When he was in sight of the pebbled beach where he and Alek had washed ashore, he ducked behind a tree and extinguished the light with a whispered nox. The fire was already lit, and as his pupils morphed to accommodate the shadows, he could make out two figures standing side by side, facing away.He wasn’t close enough to hear what they were saying, but it all seemed terribly intimate.For a moment, he considered turning back and telling Jessamine he hadn’t been able to get any closer, but his conscience got the better of him. He cast a glance around him and then shifted to his feline form, slinking forwards until he was behind the last line of trees, close enough to make out the conversation.“…ten years this spring, not that it feels like it,” Carstairs murmured.The librarian shivered, and he put an arm round her to draw her closer.“I miss him so much.”Carstairs reply was so quiet, Magnus couldn’t understand it, but Ms Gray seemed to sag against him in response and he turned to rest his chin on her hair.There was a skitter of rocks as a third figure emerged from the cottage, and suddenly Magnus’ entire being was on edge.Vulchanova picked her way down across the pebbles, balancing three lightly steaming mugs between her hands. Her hair shone in the firelight, and he pressed himself to the earth, praying the shadows and the thin foliage would hide him.Being outside the grounds was bad enough, but if she recognised his animagus form, he’d be expelled for sure.“To Will,” Vulchanova said in a clear voice, “to all those he saved, and those he couldn’t.”The three professors clinked their mugs and drank. Even with the adrenaline rushing through him, Magnus couldn’t help but wonder where Jessamine fit into the story.Thankfully the headmistress didn’t stay long, leaving Carstairs and Ms Gray to watch the smouldering fire alone. They spoke to each other in hushed voices, taking comfort in shared memories. Carstairs’ fingers were white where he gripped his cane but he made no complaint as the librarian leant against him, his free hand stroking up and down her arm.Magnus stayed longer than he’d planned, and long beyond what was necessary to avoid catching up with Vulchanova.He didn’t know how Will had died, but he could guess.Ten years ago the death eaters had been sweeping through Europe in their droves to join the dark lord, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. The fires of hatred they lit had been eagerly fed by alliance members, old and new, who emerged from their hiding with a newfound confidence and zeal.Many lives had been lost in the ensuing violence, his own mother among them.As he watched the fire crackle, it wasn’t Will he remembered, but his mama, whose body had been pulled from the Manzaneres river ten years ago to the day.He missed her too.He always would.
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Magnus was late to the feast, his mood dampened by the memories Kračun had awakened. He hadn’t felt much like dressing up, but he’d thrown on the velvet turtleneck he’d set out nonetheless, and paired its rich indigo with grey wool trousers and a slash of gold eyeliner.Klara shot him a questioning look as he sat down – too far away from Alek for his liking – but he shook his head, not wanting to explain. Her eyes flickered toward the end of the table where Alek was speaking to Lidia, and for a brief moment, Magnus wished he could reassure her. Of all the things weighing on his spirit tonight, Alek wasn’t one of them.“Ooh Magnus, you have to try this!”He jumped a little as Izzy whirled around on the other side of Klara, holding out some kind of potato salad that seemed to involve peas and carrots. The table was covered with soups, stews, sausages and even a giant carp stuffed with lemon slices.Janek noticed his panicked expression and grinned.“You need me to talk you through it?”It was, as Magnus came to learn, a selection of Christmas food that spanned the breadth of Eastern Europe. To each of his friends, there was at least one dish that was deeply nostalgic, although no one was shying away from trying the unfamiliar. As the meal progressed, he contented himself with sipping wine and listening to Klara’s chatter, and the numbness inside began to ebb.Still, when Maia asked him whether he was coming to Lidia’s room for the afterparty, he couldn’t muster up much enthusiasm.“Come on Magnus,” she said, clasping her hands together as if to beg. “It’s the last night of term and this one’s already ditching me to get laid.”“I am not,” Klara said, beet red, but Janek just shrugged, unphased.“It’s our anniversary – what did you expect?”“I don’t know,” Magnus replied, “who’s coming?”“Me, Izzy, Lidia…” she glanced toward the end of the table, where Bat and Alek were sitting. “Velasquez said he had to pack.”“Bet he’d come if you asked him to.”Maia rolled her eyes but Magnus was just tipsy enough to press the point.“No seriously – he’s cute, smart, and way into you. What’s stopping you?”Maia sighed, taking a sip of her wine.“Maybe, I have other options.”Magnus’ eyebrows shot up.“Who? Do I know them? Ooh, is it Kovalenko?”“Under no circumstances,” Maia protested, and Magnus felt a twinge of guilt for laughing.“Who then?”“None of your business, that’s who.”“Someone from home?”She shook her head, and then raised her voice to be heard across the table.“Oi, Ledovsky! Magnus wants to know if you’re coming to Lidia’s.”Alek looked up, quirking an eyebrow, and Magnus shrugged, equal parts uneasy and amused.“Sure, why not?”It took a moment for Alek’s reply to register, before Izzy whooped and Magnus turned back to Maia with a grin.“Well, now I’ve got decent company...”“Asshole.”They were so busy bickering Lidia had to shout
to get his attention.“Hey, Magnus! You guys should head up now – less chance of bumping into Jessamine.”She and Alek exchanged a look Magnus couldn’t decipher, and then Alek leant back to look up to the professors’ table.While several teachers had departed once dessert had been served – both Weasley and MacMillan were nowhere to be seen – Professor Ledovsky was still in deep conversation with Starkweather.His stomach sunk, but Alek simply turned to his sister.“Iz, can you check what time dad wants us to leave tomorrow?”“Now?”“Please.”Izzy gave him a considered look, and then stood up to make her way toward the professors’ table. As she was bending down to speak to Professor Ledovsky, Alek and Magnus made their way out of the hall.“Sorry about that,” Alek murmured, leading him past the library. “Last thing I need is another lecture on hanging around with undesirables...”Magnus smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.“What’s up?” Alek asked.“Nothing.”The head boy studied him, clearly unconvinced.“What did Weasley want, earlier?”“Just inviting me to his mum’s for Christmas again.”“Are you going?”“No,” Magnus said shortly.“Magnus…”Alek reached out a hand, pulling him to a halt. He’d been on Weasley’s side ever since the professor had suggested Magnus spent the holidays at the burrow, shortly after they’d returned from Hogwarts.“Are you sure? It’s Koliada–““I don’t even know what that is,” he replied, a little sharper than he intended.“Christmas then.” Alek said, undeterred. “You shouldn't be alone.”He sighed, resisting the urge to snap back.He’d spent the last six Christmases at Hogwarts, with only McGonagall and Longbottom for company. Frankly, Jessamine and Church would be an improvement.“I’m sure, now can we drop it?”He tried to tug his arm back, but Alek didn’t let go. Instead, he slid his hand down until his fingers were wrapped loosely around Magnus’ wrist.“Magnus, please, just tell me what’s wrong.”There was a concern in his voice that chipped away at his resolve, but before he could open his mouth, the silence was broken.A little way ahead, between them and the grand staircase, came the unmistakable sounds of a heavy make-out session.Magnus made eye contact with Alek just as a loud moan echoed through the courtyard, and pulled him into the nearest archway where they dissolved into silent giggles.“Did they see us?” he mouthed silently.Another groan rent the air and Alek shook his head.Magnus relaxed a little, craning his head to see better.“Please tell me I don’t sound like that,” he whispered.Alek grinned.“You don’t sound like that... you’re much louder.”Magnus tried not to smirk.“Can you see who it is?”Alek shook his head, and then froze as the couple stumbled out into the corridor. Silently, he motioned to Magnus to look down the corridor.In the dim light of the moon, he could make out a tall figure stooping to cradle the face of a blonde girl in plain black robes. It was only when he bent to lift her up that Magnus realised it was Weasley, and the blonde who had her legs wrapped around his waist was MacMillan.Someone – he was trying not to focus on who – let out yet another filthy moan, and he felt Alek begin to shake with silent laughter as Weasley carried the witch down the passage to the east gate.“Do you think they’re–““Don’t even…”Magnus broke off, shuddering at the thought, and Alek’s breath tickled the shell of his ear as he laughed.“I can’t believe they were just sucking face in the middle of a corridor.”Magnus gave him an incredulous look.“Right, because sucking dick is much more subtle.”Alek opened his mouth and then promptly shut it.The common room was almost empty. Most of the students were still down at the feast, although one or two had stayed behind to read or play chess. They made their way across to the west corridor in silence, Alek watching him out the corner of his eye.He had a nervous habit of worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, which was both terribly endearing and far more distracting than it should be.“Worrying about Jessamine?”Alek hummed noncommittally.“I don’t see why we can’t just ask her – she’s let me into Lidia’s room before.”“Sure, when you were by yourself – one guy at a time, that’s the rule.”Magnus frowned.“But why?”Alek shrugged, but a light flush appeared across his cheeks.“…oh. Is this about the condoms?”“What? No, I– er…”Magnus arched an eyebrow as Alek turned a delectable shade of red, struggling to find his words.“I’m not worried about Jessamine,” Alek said, running a hand through his hair, “if she turns up then I guess I’ll just go to bed…”
He waved away Magnus’ protestations, bringing them both to a stop in front of the entrance to the girls’ dorms.“I’m worried about you.”Magnus bit back a smile.“That’s very sweet of you, but I promise you I’m quite alright.”“I know you, Magnus.”“Do you, now.”He smirked, not-so-subtly flirting, but Alek ignored him.“I can tell when something’s not right.”“Alek, I’m fine.”“Then why were you late for dinner?”Magnus opened his mouth to reply, and then winced as he saw a familiar milky white apparition out the corner of his eye.“Magnus,” exclaimed Jessamine, clearly delighted to have happened upon them. “How was it?”Alek raised his eyebrows, and Magnus sighed deeply.“It was… fine, I guess.”“…that’s all I get? Who was there? Did anyone say anything? What were they wearing?”“Um… black? They made a toast to all those he saved, and those he couldn’t.”There was a silence as Jessamine considered this.“How frightfully morbid.”A snigger from Alek drew Jessamine’s attention.“And what are you doing here at this hour of night?”“Mr. Ledovsky requires an escort to Ms. Bronowski’s room,” said Magnus, cutting in smoothly.“No I don’t,” Alek said, elbowing him in the ribs, and Jessamine looked back to Magnus suspiciously.“I thought it was you who was visiting with Miss Bronowski?”“I suppose you could say that,” he replied, a little confused at her wording.“Magnus, I’m not–“Alek broke off suddenly, glaring at Jessamine, who was still hovering inches in front of them. She narrowed her eyes, but didn’t follow as he pulled Magnus into the abandoned corridor.“There’s no point me going by myself,” Alek said in a low voice, “I was only coming to talk to you.”“Talk, hmm?”He bit his lip and Alek gave him a look.“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”Magnus felt his face soften into a smile – this time, one that reached his eyes.“Look, we can both go – you go with Jessamine, and I’ll meet you there.”“But how?”He shrugged nonchalantly.“I have my ways.”Alek sighed.“I don’t want to know, do I.”“Probably not,” he replied, flashing a grin as he stepped back.“Well?” Jessamine asked imperiously when they’d emerged from behind the curtain.“I’ll go,” Alek said, “that is, uh, I’d like to visit Lidia.”She looked down her nose at him for a moment.“Let’s hope you last longer than he did.”Magnus’ eyebrows shot up, but Alek didn’t say anything, following the ghost into the girls’ dorms without comment.The moment they were gone, Magnus glanced around and then ducked into the stairs that led up to the junior girls’ rooms. He knew the second door to Lidia’s room was always open, but he’d have to be sure that he wasn’t seen on the corridor, and Jessamine was already suspicious. In the dark of the stairwell, his lanky frame shrank as he assumed his feline form – just in time for Jessamine come surging through the floor.Thankfully, she paid him no mind.The corridor was otherwise empty, apart from a first year in fuzzy pyjamas who was leaving the bathroom. She’d probably been too sick to go to the feast, judging by her red nose and hacking cough.He padded the short distance to bunt up against Lidia’s door, meowing plaintively.“Oh, you belong to Lidia do you?” the girl asked, and Magnus looked at her disdainfully as she opened the door.As if cats belonged to anyone.Once inside, he scanned the bedroom and shifted back, leaning against the door to close it.Lydia’s room was as spartan as he remembered, the only signs of disarray being the muddy quidditch robes that had been abandoned on the chair by the bed. He took a moment to check his hair in the bathroom mirror, wondering absent-mindedly where she kept the condom stash, and then went to find Alek.The head boy was stood by the bottom of the stairs, lost in thought as he looked out the window.“Hey,” Magnus said softly, smiling as Alek jumped even so.“Uh, hi.”Magnus could feel the heat of Alek’s gaze as he made his way downstairs, eyes roving up and down his body. When he reached the last step, he leant forward, slinging his arms around his neck, and smirked as hands came up to meet his hips as if drawn by magnets.Alek swallowed.“You’re… tall.”He arched an eyebrow.“I’m glad you noticed?”“Taller than me, I mean,” he added hastily, blush once more colouring his cheeks.“Pretty sure I’m always taller than you.”“Only if you count your hair,” Alek said under his breath, and Magnus tried not to laugh.“I take it you approve.”Alek swallowed visibly, which Magnus took as a yes.“I like the gold.”“Oh yeah?”Alek nodded, his smile soft.“It matches your eyes.”There was something about Alek’s sincerity that made him weak at the knees, even when he was complimenting a ten-second eyeliner job.“How long do we have before the others get here?”It was as if a shutter came down on Alek’s face – his smile dropped and his eyes snapped back up from where they’d been lingering on Magnus’ lips.“Long enough for you to tell me what Jessamine was on about.”Magnus raised an eyebrow.“That’s really what you want to do with this time?”He leant forward to kiss him, but Alek moved to the side, shaking his head.“Tell me what’s going on first.”“It was nothing,” he said impatiently, “she just wanted me to go out to Ms Gray’s cottage–”“–for the memorial,” Alek finished, motioning with his head to the window when Magnus looked surprised.Out over the lake, the bonfire was still glowing. Anyone who’d grown up with Kračun would know what it meant.“For Will,” Magnus admitted, noting the name didn’t seem a surprise to Alek.“Is that why you’re sad?” Alek asked softly.“I'm not sad.”Alek’s thumbs began rubbing circles over the top of his hipbones, and Magnus relented.“Well, I guess I am, but we don’t need to talk about it.”“It might make you feel better?”He shook his head.“Talking’s overrated.”He leant in again, and after a brief hesitation Alek kissed him back. He took full advantage of the height difference, cupping his hands beneath Alek’s jaw and losing himself in the taste of wine and the scrape of stubble.Alek slid his hands around his waist, and Magnus melted a little as he was picked up and the stairs swung away from his feet.He’d never kissed someone who could lift him without batting an eyelash – he supposed he had martial magic to thank for that – and he was determined to explore the possibilities in full.Sadly, it seemed that would have to wait.There was a rattling as the doorknob began to turn, and Alek dropped him unceremoniously, jerking back against the wall.Lidia, met with the sight of Magnus stumbling to find his balance and Alek rubbing his head where it had hit stone, wisely chose not to ask any questions.“You two better not have drunk my vodka.”
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“Never have I ever been to America.”Magnus’ glass lay untouched on the coffee table before him, as did those of Izzy and Alek, who were sitting next to Maia on the sofa. Izzy groaned as Lidia calmly took a sip.“Maia, these are so boring.”“Well go on then, it’s your turn.”“Hang on,” Magnus said, “what about the story?”The two girls looked at him blankly.“You know, when only one person drinks, they have to tell the story.”“What?”“That’s not a rule.”“Uh yeah, it is.”Maia screwed up her face, but to his pleasant surprise Alek backed him up.“Can’t hurt to try it.”“Thank you, Aleksandr,” he said, ignoring the shrewd look on Izzy’s face.“It’s not a very good one,” said Lidia, tucking her feet up on the armchair. “I have cousins in LA, so we spend the summer holidays there sometimes.”She looked away as she finished her explanation, and Magnus remembered the rumours about her long-distance boyfriend. Perhaps there was more to the story than she was letting on.Izzy turned her attention to the head girl, a glint in her eyes.“Okay, let’s play Magnus’ rule. Never have I ever had a boyfriend.”Lidia rolled her eyes, taking a sip and Maia sat up in interest.“Ooh I wanna hear about this.”“You’re out of luck,” Lidia replied flatly, “Magnus drank too.”He shrugged, setting his glass back down. He wasn’t actually sure if any of the guys he’d been with counted – Wosley had stuck around for a while, and now he and Alek had... whatever they had – but Lidia looked uncomfortable enough without a Spanish inquisition.“Never have I ever had a girlfriend.”Magnus winced as Alek spoke the words, predictable though they were. The head boy had been wholly unimaginative so far, repeating whatever Izzy had said the turn before with a slight twist.He took a gulp of vodka, bracing himself to talk about Camille.“So?” Izzy asked, a devious grin on her face.“We all make mistakes. Mine was blonde and lasted three years.”“I thought blondes weren’t your type.”Alek looked like he hadn’t quite intended to say that aloud, but before he could reply Maia cut in.“What’s Magnus’ type then?”“Uh, I don’t know,” Alek stammered, clearly unwilling to explain further.“Who’s next?” Magnus asked brightly, his stomach twisting a little as Izzy’s eyes alighted on his.“Hang on, we didn’t get the whole story – what was she like?”Alek was listening intently, and Magnus swore under his breath.“She was… a lot of work. Beautiful, but cold.”Camille had always surrounded herself with people that could be useful to her – Thelonious Archer, Oliver Walker, Ralph Scott, and to some extent even Raphael. More often than not, they were painfully and obviously in love with her, and Camille had no qualms about using their affection to get what she wanted.Magnus had watched as she kept them sweet, laughing at their jokes and tossing her ringlets, and told himself it wasn’t the same. With them it was all for show, a necessary evil, simply a means to an end. He was the exception to the rule.He’d been wrong.“But you loved her?”He looked up, surprised it had been Alek who asked the question.“I did, and I thought she loved me, until… let’s just say I walked in on her in flagrante delicto.”“She cheated on you?” Lidia asked, and his lips quirked at her shock.“Well, according to her we’d never agreed to be monogamous. I’m not sure how else I was supposed to interpret her confessing her undying love after I met her parents but–” he cut himself off, flashing a wry smile. “Anyway...”Maia let out a low whistle in the awkward silence.“What a bitch.”Magnus shrugged, taking another sip of vodka for good measure.“Your words not mine…
Lidia, please save me from telling my entire life story?”The head girl sat forward, her eyes narrowed in thought.“Never have I ever had girlfriend who coincidentally had the same name as my owl.”“How many people have you told about that?” Alek asked, glaring at Izzy as Magnus started giggling.“Drink up, big brother,” she grinned, “we’re gonna need the whole story.”“Seems like everyone already knows it,” Alek grumbled, his ears turning their habitual pink.He told the story anyway – Izzy adding in a running commentary that had Maia in stitches – and Magnus was grateful to have the attention off him, watching it unfold with a soft smile.His respite was brief, however.“Never have I ever got handsy in the institute,” said Maia.Magnus didn’t notice he’d drunk until four faces turned to him – three delighted, one horrified.“Yes, Magnus!”“With who?!”He swallowed.“What?”“You heard us,” Lidia said, topping up his glass without asking. “Who are you getting handsy with?”Magnus made a concerted effort not to look in Alek’s direction.“Firstly, Izzy drank too, so I don’t need to answer that, and secondly... I misheard.”“You misheard.”Maia’s tone was brimming with disbelief.“I misheard,” he repeated, doubling down. “I thought you just meant at school.”“So you don’t need any supplies?” asked Lidia, waggling her eyebrows.Magnus gave her a look.“Can we move on please?”Izzy didn’t miss a beat.“Never have I ever gone down on somebody.”“Izzy.”Alek covered his face with his hands as Magnus drank again, shrugging at Izzy’s raised eyebrows.“I had a girlfriend for nearly three years, remember?”“What does it taste like?”Alek shrunk further into the couch and Magnus tried not to laugh.“Erm, savoury, I guess.”“What about guys?” Maia asked, and Magnus shook his head.“Nope, you’ve run out of questions.”“Since when was there a limit?”“New rule - apparently I make them.”“Fine,” Izzy said, rolling her eyes. “Alek?”Alek uncovered his face, ears still burning, and met Magnus’ eyes.“Do I have to?”Izzy poked him.“I don’t know... never have I ever gone all the way.”There was moment’s silence as Izzy and Maia turned to watch him.“Come on, this isn’t fair,” Magnus protested, his fingers resting lightly on the glass."That’s the game,” Izzy replied, tucking her feet up on the couch with a mischievous grin.Magnus looked around in mute appeal, noticing Lidia looked uncomfortable.Come to think of it, it had been a while since she’d said something.He raised his eyebrows at her, and she set her glass down sharply.“Why does it always have to be about sex?”Izzy and Maia shared a wary look.“I’m just saying, every time we play this it turns into who’s done what,” Lidia continued, “and what’s the point when we know all the answers.”“To be fair, I don’t know all the answers,” Magnus said tentatively, and Izzy nodded.“Exactly, it’s just a way to get to know each other.”“Well sorry if I don’t consider giving Poliakoff a handjob behind the owlery a fundamental part of my identity.”Izzy jerked back as if she’d been slapped.“Maybe we should stop playing,” said Alek awkwardly, looking between the two girls.“Behind the owlery?” Magnus asked, and Maia gave him a look.“Magnus, not the time.”“I know, it’s just... do you think that’s where Weasley was going?”He locked eyes with Alek, who grimaced.“Aw... gross.”Alek snorted with laughter, and the three girls looked to Magnus for explanation.Somehow, they’d forgotten to tell the others what they’d seen earlier.He recounted the story in excruciating detail, stopping just short of getting Alek to act it out with him. Izzy laughed along with the story, but she was a little more subdued than usual, and Lidia stayed silent. When he’d finished, only Maia had questions.“Wait, so are they like together together?”“Enough to spend Christmas with each other,” Magnus replied, “and thank fuck I’m not there for that.”“I need to pack,” Izzy announced suddenly, standing up. “We’re going to St. Petersburg in seven hours.”She left the room abruptly, without saying goodbye to anyone. Magnus watched as Alek and Maia exchanged some kind of coded glance, and then Maia stood up.“I should go after her – see you next term Bane.”He returned her hug, half-distracted by Alek, who had leant forward to have some kind of hushed conversation with Lidia.“Everything okay?” he asked, once it was just the three of them.“Yeah, sorry about that,” Lidia replied, picking up the glasses. “Talking about sex is just... I never have anything to say, and that makes me the freak.”“You’re not a freak,” Magnus said firmly, “and loads of people finish school without having sex.”“Not that you’d know,” Alek said flatly.“...yes, well I’ve always been precocious,” Magnus said, flashing a grin as he tossed back the last of his vodka, “but it’s not like you’re the only one – Maia wasn’t drinking for anything.”“Or Alek,” Lidia said, smiling softly as she looked up at the headboy.Magnus had to work to keep his eyebrows still.“Or Alek.”“We should head too,” Alek said, his eyes begging Magnus to keep quiet. “Goodnight Lidia.”She hugged Alek, perhaps a little tight for Magnus taste, and then gave Magnus’ hand a quick squeeze as he passed her his empty glass. He held his tongue until the door had closed behind them.“You haven’t told her then?”Alek didn’t answer, setting off down the corridor.Magnus followed.“Alek that girl obviously has crush on you, and you don’t really seem to care.”“I don’t get why it’s such a big deal,” he replied shortly.“Well for one, you’re gay.”Alek wheeled around, his hands like iron around Magnus’ wrist.“Keep your voice down.”Magnus shook his hands loose.“Okay, sorry.”He might have spoken a little louder than he’d intended. He had drunk most of the vodka.“We’re just friends,” Alek muttered, “it’s not my fault if she’s got the wrong idea.”Magnus rolled his eyes.“Right, because you’ve never done anything to encourage–““And where do you think you’re going?”Shit.Jessamine was hovering inches in front of them, blocking the exit from the girls dormitory.“Well?” she demanded, her hair flying about as if buffeted by an invisible wind.“Look, we’re sorry–““One at a time, you know the rules,” she hissed, addressing Alek.“I know, we were just leaving–““I don’t think either of you are courting Miss Bronowski, are you?”Magnus screwed up his face in confusion.“Courting her?”Alek remained silent next to him, and the ghost’s mouth tightened into a line.“Let’s see what the headmistress has to say about that.”“No, please,” Magnus said urgently, reaching out a hand as if he could stop the ghost from triggering the alarm. “I promise you, it won’t happen again.”He risked a glance at Alek who was stubbornly staring at the ground.“You tricked me,” Jessamine said mulishly.“I know, and if you want to report me, I can’t stop you.”The ghost looked satisfied, until Magnus continued.“Of course, I might mention that you asked me to go to the memorial.”She considered this in silence. It was a gamble, but Magnus had a feeling she didn’t want the headmistress to know she’d been anywhere near the fire on the lake, if only by proxy.“He’s not allowed outside the castle grounds you know,” said Alek casually, finally looking up.“I’m not,” Magnus concurred, impressed with his quick thinking, “and Vulchanova would be very upset I broke that rule at your behest...”“Fine,” Jessamine snapped. “Leave now and I won’t report this.”He shared a look of relief with Alek, but Jessamine was still blocking the archway.“I won’t forget this,” she said directly to Magnus, “and I won’t trust you again.”“...okay?”Her mouth twisted in spite – clearly Magnus hadn’t said whatever she wanted to hear – and her eyes drifted toward Alek.“Did you know it’s Mr Bane’s birthday today? Be sure to give him your regards.”The weight of the day came crashing down on him as the ghost departed and Alek turned to him with wide eyes.“It’s your birthday?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Magnus set off down the corridor, ignoring Alek’s gobsmacked expression, but Alek only took his silence as confirmation.“Why didn’t you say anything? We could have done something–““I didn’t want to do anything.”“But–““Alek my parents are dead,” he snapped. “Birthdays, Christmases, summer holidays... what do you think those were like for me growing up?”Alek looked stricken.“Magnus… I’m sorry.”“It’s not your fault,” he said, lowering his voice and trying to tamp down on his frustration. “It’s just... it is what it is.”Their pace slowed as they reached the end of the corridor, and Magnus stopped in front of the door to his room, making an attempt to relax his shoulders.“Look, it’s not a big deal, okay?”Alek sighed.“It is a big deal. No one should be sad on their birthday.”“Alek.”This boy would be the end of him.He leant forward, reaching out a hand to cup his jaw. It was only when Alek caught his wrist again that he remembered they were in full view.He instinctively drew away, but Alek only tightened the grip on his wrist, holding it in place.
“…Alek?”He stopped breathing as Alek looked up, taken aback by the heat in his eyes.It was Alek who moved first, stepping backward to pull Magnus through the door behind him and crashing their mouths together.Later he’d ask himself how exactly it had happened – who’d managed to spell the door shut, and how they’d crossed the changing room without tripping over the wooden benches – but in that moment, all he knew was the slide of Alek’s mouth against his own, the twist of fabric as they pulled each other ever closer, and the chill of tiles against his back when they reached the showers.He grabbed Alek’s hips, attempting to reverse their positions, and then gasped in shock as someone’s elbow knocked a handle and cold water began to spray out above their heads.For a moment he was drowning, the memory of water filling his lungs.He pushed Alek away without fully meaning to, staggering into the centre of the room. Alek was still under the water, watching him intently.The head boy unfastened his belt, shrugged off the woollen tunic it had been holding closed, and tipped his head back into the water, letting it run over his face. Within seconds, his white shirt was soaked through and clinging to every inch of the smooth muscle underneath.He pushed the wet hair back from his forehead, caught Magnus looking, and then held out a hand in silent invitation, the ghost of a smirk on his lips.Magnus wanted this.Scratch that, he needed this.He forced himself to take a deep breath, and then stepped forward, allowing Alek to pull him under the water and back into the kiss. He was still on edge, but Alek seemed to instinctively know what to do, covering Magnus’ face with his hands and blocking the worst of the spray.When he lifted up the hem of his turtleneck, Alek broke the kiss to help him, as eager as Magnus was for more. There was a moment of panic as he got stuck, the wet velvet preventing him from drawing breath, but before he could ask for help, Alek was freeing him with a sharp tug. He raked in a shaky breath as Alek cradled his face again, a question in his eyes Magnus didn’t want to answer.He pulled him back in before it could be asked.If he’d been drowning, Alek was his oxygen, and his head span as he drank in every last breath.The world narrowed down to a clash of tongues and teeth and the two burning hands mapping out every inch of his skin, and still Magnus wanted more. He groaned as Alek moved his mouth down to the juncture between his neck and his shoulder, stubble scraping across sensitive skin, and then lower, trailing open-mouthed kisses down his chest. As he reached the his stomach, Magnus cracked an eye.“Alek.”He pressed another kiss deep into the hollow beneath Magnus’ ribcage, rubbing his jaw into the softness there, and paused, waiting for Magnus’ permission.“What happened to taking it slow?”Alek looked up at him with unwavering blue eyes.“Call it your birthday present.”Magnus swallowed, suppressing a shiver of anticipation, and Alek took the opportunity to drag his stubble across his belly once more.“Fuck... okay, just–”Magnus reached down to unhook his fly, but Alek stopped him.“Let me.”If Magnus had any reservations, the unabashed desire in Alek’s voice and the steady hands that peeled down the wet wool convinced him.“Please,” Magnus began, and then the air was stolen from his lungs as Alek took him into his mouth. He let his eyes fall shut for a moment as the sensations overwhelmed him – cold air in his lungs, warm water beating down on his chest, and the raw heat of Alek’s mouth.His breath came in harsh pants and he smoothed back Alek’s hair with trembling fingers. He barely recognised the choked off moans coming from his own mouth, but they seemed to spur Alek on, his eyes fluttering closed in silent reverie.Alek sucked a breath through his nose, and then took as much as he could, jaw straining with effort. Magnus flung his free hand out to the wall as he battled not to thrust his hips forward, trailing his fingers down to Alek’s jaw instead.He was gone as soon as he felt him swallow, but Alek didn’t stop, working him through the aftershocks. He pushed him away when his knees threatened to collapse, tugging him upwards into a messy kiss.“Mmph... Magnus wait.”Alek pulled back, and Magnus raised an eyebrow.“I just–
you know.”Magnus rolled his eyes and yanked him back in, thrusting his tongue into Alek’s mouth and moaning in appreciation at the bitterness he found there.He could tell the moment Alek cottoned on to what was happening – that Magnus was getting off on the taste of himself – because the head boy became heavy and pliant in his arms, and the warmth pressing against Magnus’ hip hardened into a white-hot line.In all the times they’d been together, he’d never felt Alek’s desire.He deepened the kiss, grabbing a handful of Alek’s ass and grinding against it, and laughed when Alek broke the kiss to pant brokenly against his neck.“That’s it darling,” he purred, bringing round a hand to palm at the front of the sodden dress pants.Alek was still breathing harshly, but he hadn’t moved, frozen in place.“Alek?”He drew back, putting some space between them, and moved his hands to the sides of Alek’s face.“Hey... hey, look at me.”Alek still had his eyes shut tight, his hands loosely resting on Magnus’ waist.“Too much?”Alek leant forward, resting his forehead on Magnus’ and
nodded fractionally.“Oh sweetheart... I’m so sorry.”Alek didn’t reply, covering Magnus’ hands with his own and keeping his eyes shut. He was furious with himself for not noticing sooner – for letting himself get carried away and not checking in.“Just breathe for me okay?”By the time Alek had slowed his breathing and calmed down enough to talk, the shower had begun to run cold. Magnus shut it off and pulled his trousers up, grimacing at the wet wool and picking his wand up from where it had fallen.“Sorry,” Alek whispered, so quietly he might have missed it.“Don’t you dare apologise.”Alek bowed his head, and Magnus sighed, reaching out a hand to lift up his chin.“Alek, you didn’t do anything wrong, okay?”He sighed, as the head boy refused to look at him.“I’ll be back in a minute – stay here.”He forgot the door was locked, trying it twice before he dug out his wand for an alohomora. Frankly he was lucky it was still in one piece.The door to his dormitory creaked as he pushed it open, but thankfully no one stirred. He rooted around in his trunk, locating a pair of towels and two pairs of pyjamas, and then hurried back. Alek was where he’d been when Magnus left him, shivering in the cool air as he leant against the wall. Magnus passed him a towel, and then suspended the dry clothes in the air with a quick levitation charm.“I’ll be next door when you’re ready.”If he heard, Alek didn’t believe him – he looked adorably surprised when he came into the changing room and Magnus was rubbing his hair dry, having changed into flannel pyjama pants and a long-sleeved shirt.“You’re still here.”“I am,” he said gently, patting the bench beside him, and Alek sat down, still reluctant to meet his eye.“We should talk.”“So now you want to talk,” Alek muttered.Magnus declined to comment.“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Alek said, sighing in frustration. “You were great, and then I freaked out and ruined it.”“Alek, please...”“It was your birthday, and I ruined it,” Alek repeated stubbornly, his voice wobbling.“You didn’t ruin anything,” Magnus replied, taking his hand, “and I hope you didn’t think you owed me something just because it’s my birthday.”“It wasn’t that.”Magnus waited, patiently.
“I could tell,” Alek said quietly, finally meeting his eyes. “I could tell you needed it, and I wanted... I needed it too.”“Did you want me to get you off?”Alek swallowed visibly, dropping his gaze.“I– uh yeah, I think so…” he replied, looking away. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”“There’s nothing–““Come on, every other week we have to have a big conversation about how fucked up I am. We never have to do that for you.”“Trust me, we wouldn’t have the time,” Magnus joked, immediately regretting it when Alek pulled his hand back.“Magnus, I’m being serious–”“So am I,” he said softly. “Do you honestly think you’re the only one who comes with baggage?”Alek met his eyes then, shifting uncomfortably on his seat.“I know you’ve been through a lot, but you seem to have it all under control – or at least, you don’t talk about it if you don’t…”He trailed off, noticing Magnus’ incredulous face.“Aleksandr, I’ve never been in less control than when I’m with you.”“But, it’s not like this is new–““It’s all new. Everything with you is unchartered territory.”He felt suddenly raw, standing up so he could get away from searching eyes.“Ask me a question,” he said, breaking the silence, “anything you want.”Alek’s eyes clouded over.“What does it matter if you’re going to veto it.”“I won’t,” he replied, feeling a rush of adrenaline. “No holds barred.”Alek hesitated, and for a moment Magnus thought he’d made a mistake.
“Why are you so afraid of water?”His first reaction was relief – Alek could have asked why he’d been expelled from Hogwarts, or how he’d paid for Paris and the wine, or any number of questions that had highly incriminating answers – but then he realised he’d have to talk about her.He stood up, raking a hand through his hair.“You know my mother died when I was eight,” he began, and Alek nodded silently. “She drowned, and… I was there.”“Magnus–““I watched her die, Alek,” he said, tears welling up, “and I didn’t know how to save her.”Alek reached out, pulling him onto his lap and into his arms. He went willingly, burying his face against Alek’s neck in a way that was becoming all too familiar.“It wasn’t your fault,” Alek insisted, and then, as if he’d only just remembered, “I’m going to kill Pangborn.”“No, no,” Magnus said wetly, trying to pull himself together. “You can’t tell him.”“But if he knew–““–it would be worse.”Alek sighed, holding him tighter.“I know you’re right, but I don’t like it.”“Me neither,” Magnus said glumly, prompting Alek to press a kiss into his damp hair. “It’s alright most of the time, though, I just avoid water.”
“That… hasn’t been going that well for you,” Alek remarked, and Magnus was surprised to find he could still laugh.“It really hasn’t,” he agreed, settling back against Alek’s shoulder, “and somehow I never have my wand?”Alek hummed, politely refraining from reminding Magnus that was entirely his own fault.“I guess we can be fucked up together.”“Oh no,” Magnus said, sitting up so he could look at him properly. “I may not have solutions for me, but we can definitely sort out whatever’s happening here.”He poked Alek in the forehead, and the head boy sighed.“I don’t think we can go any slower than we already are.”“Well, maybe you need some practice over the holidays.”Alek blinked, looking confused.“How–““Some solo practice,” Magnus clarified, wiggling his eyebrows to leave no room for doubt.Alek turned an odd shade of pink.
“I’m not talking to you about this,” he said, pressing his nose into Magnus’ collarbone.“Come on darling, you weren’t so shy twenty minutes ago.”He felt a huff of breath against his skin, but Alek didn’t look up.Not wanting to push him, Magnus disentangled himself, planting a kiss on Alek’s reddening cheek before collecting his turtleneck from where it had been flung next door.“That’s not really my thing,” Alek said from the changing room.“What – polishing your broomstick?”“Magnus.”“Slapping the billywig?”He stuck his head around the corner, gratified to see Alek had turned pillarbox red.“Ooh, I know, greasing your wand.”He waggled his eyebrows and Alek groaned, covering his face with his hands.“How are you even coming up with these?”“Natural talent,” Magnus said smoothly, grinning when Alek let out a reluctant laugh.
“Why not?”He came back into the changing room, picking up his towel to fold and letting Alek talk at his own pace.“It’s not… straightforward for me,” he began haltingly, “I not like I can borrow Janek’s copy of Knuts.”“…you could borrow something from Izzy,” Magnus said, shrugging in apology when Alek shot him a withering look. “Or you could just use the internet, like everyone else.”Alek furrowed his brow.“I thought the internet was like a giant library?”“Sure. If the library had an extensive collection of pornographic material,” Magnus replied, feeling a rush of fondness at Alek’s bemused expression. “Look, I know you’ve heard of google,” he said, “so you must have access to some kind of computer.”“There’s a laptop in the attic,” Alek offered tentatively, clearly not sure if it counted, “but I’ve never really used it much.”“Well maybe this is your chance to get better acquainted,” he said, adding as an afterthought, “just don’t download anything.”Alek looked alarmed.“What does that mean?”“Uh, on second thoughts, google images is probably a safe place to start.”Alek looked so serious, Magnus wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d taken out a quill and parchment and started making notes.
“Relax, darling – it’s supposed to be fun.”Alek sighed.“I know, it just gets… complicated.”Magnus softened at that.Alek had spent two years being told he was disgusting and deviant for checking out another guy. It was hardly surprising he’d feel guilty fantasising about them, even in the privacy of his own mind.He tried not to think too hard about who a teenaged Alek had probably been picturing.“You know, if you can’t figure out the laptop, there’s always yours truly.”He winked, and Alek choked out a few unintelligible noises before he could form words.“I can’t think of you when I’m…”“Taming the dragon?”He let out a groan, and Magnus giggled, setting his towel down a moment and coming back over to stand in between Alek’s legs.Alek’s broad hands settled on his hips, and he looked up, swallowing dryly.“If it helps, I’m a very willing subject.”He kissed Alek softly at first, hands framing his face as he took his lip between his teeth and bit lightly. Alek slid his hands a little lower in response, so they were resting on the swell of Magnus’ ass, and Magnus deepened the kiss with an appreciative moan.When he stepped back, Alek looked half-dazed.“What was that for?”“Inspiration.”By the time Magnus climbed into bed, it was well past midnight. Another birthday had come and gone, but the numb emptiness that he was accustomed to had lifted a little.As much as he was scared to admit it, he had Alek to thank.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
On Christmas morning Magnus slept late, as had become his habit in the couple of days since term had ended. He hadn’t realised until then how much sharing a dormitory with Pangborn had affected him – without the risk of an unwelcome awakening, he’d been sleeping better than he had done in months.The castle was quiet in the pale sunlight. Breakfast had long been cleared away, and the handful of professors who remained seemed to have shut themselves back in their rooms. Magnus made his way to check his pigeonhole with some trepidation. A card had arrived from Raphael yesterday, along with a second-hand copy of a Spanish novella from Guadalupe, but there had been nothing from Catarina or Ragnor so far.He tried not to feel upset that it was empty – after all, it was his fault they’d fallen out of touch. Besides, Alek had taken Jessica to St Petersburg with him, so he had no way of reciprocating in kind.He stopped by the kitchen to beg some coffee from the house elves, and then made his way back to the windowsill in the abandoned corridor, the novella tucked under his arm. As he approached the curtain, he slowed down, realising it was already occupied.“...and then Daisy taught me how to ride a real broomstick, and...”The sentence continued for some length until a deep voice replied, their tone full of affection.“Magnus?”He jumped, realising he’d been eavesdropping, and turned to see Professor Carstairs in the doorway to the infirmary.“Hi... I, uh, who is that?”Carstairs’ face softened slightly as he took in the book Magnus was holding.“Long before it was your reading nook, that windowsill belonged to my niece – she’s home for the holidays, as is James.”“Who’s she talking to?”There was a flash of pain across Carstairs’ face, and for a moment Magnus was afraid he’d made another misstep.“The paintings,” Carstairs replied evenly, his face smoothing back out into something less ragged.“Right, I guess I should uh...”Magnus gestured back in the direction of the common room. Carstairs’ eyebrows furrowed together, as if he’d suddenly remembered something.“What are your plans for Christmas Dinner?”“Not much,” Magnus shrugged. He’d been taking his meals in the common room – it was less lonely than eating in the hall, and the house elves didn’t seem to mind.“We’re having a roast at the cottage later – there’ll be plenty of room if you’d like to join us?”“I don’t know,” Magnus replied awkwardly. “I wouldn’t want to intrude.”He hadn’t turned down Christmas with the Weasleys to insert himself into a different family.“You wouldn’t be,” Carstairs insisted, “and the Turkey’s ginormous – I’m not convinced it’ll fit in the oven without a little magic.”Magnus couldn’t help but smile at that, but he made no promises. In his heart of hearts, he knew he’d be tucked away on his bunk finishing his book.He wished Carstairs a merry Christmas, making sure he’d pass it onto the librarian, and then made his way back to the dormitories with one last curious glance toward the closed curtain.He'd scarcely opened the book when there was a knock at door.“Magnus?”He sat up sharply at the sound of Vulchanova’s voice, forgetting he was on a bunk bed.“Ow... fuck, uh, hi?”There was a noise that sounded suspiciously like muffled laughter.“You have some visitors,” Vulchanova said, opening the door and allowing the figures behind her into the room.“Cat?”Magnus launched himself off the bed and into the arms of his best friend, whose grin was nearly as wide as his own.“Children,” Ragnor muttered, leaning against the wall and protesting weakly when Magnus’ affectation were turned on him.“How are you–“He looked at Vulchanova who flashed a smile.“I’m afraid I can’t take credit – this was all Percy.”“We’re only here until tonight,” Catarina said apologetically, “they could only keep the floo open so long.”“I don’t care,” Magnus said, squeezing Ragnor a touch too tight. “I want to hear everything.”Vulchanova excused herself with a fond smile, and Magnus set about quizzing his friends on their adventures in Peru. In a surprise to absolutely no one, it turned out Ragnor had found a way to prepare the fungus from the Vipertooth nests so that it was no longer toxic to humans, and Catarina had secured funding to begin trials next month.“That’s amazing,” Magnus said, leaning forward from where he was sat on the floor to squeeze her hand.“You haven’t heard the best part,” Catarina replied. “We’re starting with dragon handlers.”“We had some difficulty finding somewhere with a big enough population,” Ragnor continued, “until we started looking closer to home.”“We’re coming to Romania,” Catarina blurted out, her enthusiasm spilling over.Magnus found himself suddenly choked up.Romania was... still pretty far away, but a thousand times nearer than the other side of the world, and while he wasn’t technically allowed to leave the Institute there was nothing to stop Catarina and Ragnor making their way to Ydrys.“Promise me you’ll visit,” he said fiercely, and Catarina nodded rapidly.“Of course – I’ve been so worried about you.” Her eyes flickered towards Ragnor, who was still leaning against the wall. “We both have.”“Speak for yourself,” Ragnor muttered, turning his attention back toward Magnus. “You don’t exactly seem hard done by.”Magnus cocked an eyebrow.“What’s that supposed to mean?”“Just that while you’re here, gallivanting over Scandinavia, the mess you left behind at Hogwarts isn’t getting any better.”Catarina gave Magnus a knowing look. They both knew what Ragnor meant, although he'd never outright say it.“It's not really ‘gallivanting’ if I can’t leave the castle grounds,” Magnus jibed, “and if you're worried about Raphael, he was on top form last time I saw him.”Ragnor made a derisive sound.“Camille still hasn’t paid him his share you know.”“And what does that have to do with me?”“Stop it, both of you,” Catarina said firmly, glaring at them from the bed. “Ragnor, you can’t hold Magnus accountable for Camille’s bullshit, and as for you...” Magnus balked as she jabbed a finger in his direction. “You stopped replying to my letters.”His mouth hung open for a few seconds before he got his bearings.“I know, and I’m sorry, I didn’t–““Didn’t want to tell us about your new squeeze?” she asked, her tone dangerously polite.“He’s not my squeeze, we just–““Oh please, Raphael said you were all over him like a cheap suit,” Ragnor scoffed.There was little ambiguity as to what Raphael thought of cheap suits.“Well forgive me if someone was a little on edge, because someone else had decided to send bludgers after a child,” Magnus said pointedly, looking to Catarina for support.“I heard,” she said curtly, “and don’t think I didn’t give Raphael a piece of my mind, but...”“But what?” Magnus asked hotly.“I don’t see how you could have expected anything else,” Ragnor replied, clearly exasperated. “Raphael only did what any logical person would do, and it’s not as if anyone actually got hurt.”Cat remained silent, her lips pursed. He had the impression this wasn’t the first time they’d had this argument.“Maia was in pretty bad shape actually,” Magnus replied “not that you asked.”“Like your precious head boy wouldn’t have done the exact same,” Ragnor said scathingly.“Ragnor,” Catarina said in warning. He rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. She sighed, turning back towards him. “What’s he like then?”Magnus allowed her to steer the conversation to safer ground.“Alek? He’s... I don’t know.”“Good in bed?” Ragnor asked drily.He looked up sharply and waved his wand to shut the open door.“I wouldn’t know, and will you keep your voice down? He’s not out.”“Magnus... don't tell me you’re seeing him in secret,” Catarina said, her disapproval clear.“Look, he has his reasons for staying closeted, and how is that any of your business anyway?”“It’s not,” she replied, “but him dragging you back in there is.”“We’re just friends,” Magnus insisted, his irritation rising back up. “He’s a good guy, and he cares about me... why is that so funny?”He directed the last question at Ragnor, who’d snorted loudly at some point, but it was Catarina who spoke.“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”Magnus barked out a laugh.He was absolutely not in love with Aleksandr Ledovsky.Before he could tell Catarina that he was interrupted by a tapping at the window, which Ragnor went to open. A familiar shape deposited a small brown parcel on Magnus’ lap with a swoop of giant wings and then perched one of the ladders.Cat raised an eyebrow.“Is that–““An eagle owl,” Ragnor replied, already moving forward to examine her wings. “She’s come from the snow.”Magnus tore open the paper, well aware that hadn’t been the question on Catarina’s lips.Inside was a strip black leather and the gaudiest silk handkerchief Magnus had ever seen in his life – a riot of purple, lime green and mustard yellow that bordered on offensive. He unfolded the accompanying note and bit back a laugh.
Since you keep dropping your wand,
A
He looked up, seeing that Catarina was still watching him.“Just friends, huh,” she asked.Ragnor glanced over his shoulder, eyes wide with suspicion.“Is that a sex thing? Please tell me that’s not a sex thing.”Catarina let out a loud snort, Magnus followed and suddenly the tension dissipated. Alek’s gift prompted Catarina to present him with a giant slab of Honeydukes chocolate from her bag, which Ragnor begrudgingly admitted was from him as well. He felt guilty he hadn’t anything to gift in return, but Catarina wouldn’t hear anything of it.The rest of the afternoon passed quickly, Ragnor content to flick through the Novella from Guadalupe while Cat and Magnus gossiped over mulled wine from the common room. When Catarina went for a refill, Magnus took the chance to break of a corner of the chocolate and send it back to Alek along with a scribbled reply.If Ragnor noticed, he didn’t comment on it.It was all considerably less fraught until Magnus let slip he’d turned down not one, but two invitations to Christmas Dinner, which resulted in Catarina insisting they take Carstairs up on the offer en masse.As they made their way out to Ms Gray’s cottage, the forest already wreathed in twilight, conversation turned to Raphael again. A little embarassed, Ragnor admitted he’d tried to give him money for Christmas.“I told you he’d never accept it,” Catarina said, and Ragnor sighed.“I know, I just don’t get why I have to watch him suffer when I have the means to fix it.”Magnus and Catarina exchanged a look. Catarina’s parents were comfortably middle class, but Ragnor had been raised in what amounted to a small mansion just north of London.Some things he’d never understand.“If you really want to help, get the money to Padre Jeremías,” Magnus said, conjuring a scrap of parchment with the priest’s address on it to the pocket of Ragnor’s blazer. It won’t all go to Guadalupe, but he’ll make sure the children have coats for the winter.“I wish there was something more sustainable we could do,” Catarina murmured, and Magnus hummed in agreement. For all the harm it had done, dealing in illicit substances had been an invaluable source of money for both him and Raphael. Without it, he wasn’t sure what they had left.It took them longer than Magnus had expected to find the cottage, with Ragnor's comments about his navigation skills becoming increasingly pointed.“I thought you said you’d been here before,” he grumbled.“In my defense, I was drugged at the time,” Magnus retorted, realising his mistake when Cat looked at him sharply.“Drugged?”“I uh, swallowed too much lake water,” he said quickly, finally spotting the gate through the trees. “Aha!”He ignored Catarina's incredulous look and hurried up the path to knock on the front door. It opened to a chorus of greeting and a beaming Carstairs, who conjured up a handful of chairs and a foot of extra table without breaking a sweat.It was obvious as soon as Magnus saw them next to each other that his ‘nephew’ and ‘niece’ were Ms Gray’s children, and he kicked himself for not realising it earlier. Their dark hair and blue eyes might have come from her late husband, but there was no mistaking the arch of their brow or their pointed chins. In the candlelight, Lucie, who had just returned from a family friend's outside of Paris, was almost the spitting image of her mother.It wasn’t long before Carstair, Ragnor and Catarina were wrapped up in conversation about their research, leaving the siblings to quiz Magnus on every last detail of his time at Hogwarts. Lucie had already had her letter for next year and was determined to work out the best common room before she was sorted. Magnus was pretty sure she’d argue with the sorting hat if it came down to it. Ms Gray watched the discussion fondly, but every so often Magnus would find her gaze drifting to the clock on the mantelpiece with a look that was almost sad.When they’d finished the meal, Carstairs made for his wand but the librarian stayed his arm.“You’ve done quite enough today – let me take care of that.”She began stacking the plates by hand, impervious to Carstairs’ objections and Ragnor’s utterly perplexed expression. Catarina and Magnus both stood to help her without comment, and James seized on the opportunity to ask Ragnor if he’d really cursed the record player in the Gryffindor common room. On his way to the kitchen, Magnus noticed the black wand Carstairs had been trying to give her all those months ago was tucked behind the clock, just out of sight.When she saw the librarian up to her elbows in soapy water, Catarina opened her mouth as if to say something, but clearly thought better of it. Magnus motioned with his head, and she nodded, leaving the two of them alone.“You must think I’m ridiculous,” Ms Gray said as he picked up a tea towel and began drying.Magnus shrugged.“Magic can be unsettling if you’re not used to it.”The librarian shook her head.“It’s not that – I've seen enough of it that it doesn’t unnerve me anymore – but doing things the mundane way helps keep me sane.”Magnus let out a huff of amusement.“I’m pretty sure the washing up at the orphanage actually drove me insane, but each to their own.”Ms Gray lapsed into silence.“I bet you’d have given anything for a wand then,” she said eventually, and Magnus hummed noncommittally.“Lately, I’ve been learning to do stuff without a wand,” he offered, clarifying when he saw her blank look. “Simple spells, mostly, but also the flare you saw that night.”“The only magic I’ve ever done has been without a wand,” she said, “but I’ve no idea how I did it.”“It takes practice,” Magnus replied, “but the magic's inside us. Wands are just a way of channelling it.” He hesitated. “I could show you if you’d like.”“You’re not the first to offer,” Ms Gray replied, her lips quirking with amusement, “but thank you all the same.” Before Magnus could apologise, she carried on.“They found him holding it, you know, his wand. For a long time I resented that it couldn’t save him, but the wand itself was never the problem. The world of magic – wizards, and wands and all their wars – that’s what killed him.”Magnus dried the last of the cutlery and swallowed around the lump in his throat.“You must miss him a lot.”He wanted to say more. That he too had lost a loved one to the wars. That when he’d seen Madame Maxime arrive at the orphanage in a flying carriage, he’d broken his ankle climbing out his window to get away, and when she’d taken out her wand to reset it, he’d screamed and screamed until Padre Jeremías came running.The walk back to the castle was subdued, with Magnus quieter than usual and neither Ragnor nor Catarina picking up the slack. As they said their goodbyes outside Vulchanova’s office, Catarina let Ragnor go ahead.“Carstairs told me about your midnight dip in Lake Lynn.”“What about it?”“I know you didn’t just decide to go for a swim.’”Her look reminded Magnus she was one of the few people who knew the full story of his mother’s death.“There’s a guy in my dorm – complete moron, racist, blood supremacist, homophobic, you name it he’s said it – we were having an argument, and I slipped, that’s all.”“An argument,” Catarina repeated, her face full of disbelief.“...an argument with wands,” Magnus admitted. “It wasn’t a big deal okay?”“He said you were with Ledovsky,” Catarina said quietly, and Magnus shook his head.“It wasn’t him, Alek’s not... do you really think I would–”He bit his tongue, remembering there had definitely been a crush on a homophobic dickhead somewhere around second year.“Somebody else tried to stun me, and Alek jumped in to stop me from drowning. He saved my life, Cat.”She didn’t look any more convinced.“Does Carstairs know?”“No,” Magnus said, rolling his eyes as she crossed her arms. “I didn’t want to make anything worse, and I definitely didn’t want him to go running to Vulchanova – it won’t be long until she decides I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”“And what about Alek, did he say anything?” she asked.Magnus blinked.“We didn’t really talk about it much,” he replied, opting not to tell her they’d gotten high and fooled around instead. “He knows I don’t want to get Vulchanova involved, and it’s not like he could do much anyway...”Catarina audibly scoffed and Magnus raised an eyebrow.“He’s the head boy Magnus, I’m sure he could do something – detention at the very least.”Magnus frowned, thinking it through. If Alek had given out detentions after that night, it would have raised questions about why they were outside the castle gates, but that wasn’t the only time Pangborn had given him shit. How many times had Alek heard him yell slurs across a busy corridor, or seen Magnus fall asleep in class because he’d been kept awake all night? He’d even witnessed the aftermath on the way to Hogwarts, and never, not once, had he doled out any punishment.“Cat,” Ragnor hissed from the door of the office, “will you hurry up?”Cat ignored him, putting a hand on Magnus’ arm.“I'm just saying, if he cared, he’d do something.”She gave him one last hug and then hurried to the office, admonishing Ragnor for not saying a proper goodbye.“Oh for heaven’s sake, tarrah and farewell and all that jazz... what?” Catarina whispered something under her breath, Magnus heard Ragnor reply “he knows that,” although he wasn’t quite sure what it was he was supposed to know.There was a green flash as the two of them stepped into the fireplace, Vulchanova pulled the door shut with a nod good night, and Magnus was left alone with his thoughts.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
A few days later, Magnus was having a late breakfast in the common room when Izzy stormed up the stairs, eyes red from crying.“Izzy?”She shook her head, showing no sign of slowing down, and made straight for her room. Once Magnus’ brain had caught up, he followed her down the west corridor, but Jessamine was waiting by the entrance to the dormitory with a satisfied smirk.“I don’t think so,” she said in a sing-song voice, her hand raised as if she were about to conduct an orchestra.Magnus took a sharp step back, and called Izzy’s name again. There was no response other than the slamming of a door.He returned to the common room, only to be faced with a furious Professor Ledovsky“Yelizaveta, COME BACK HERE!” he roared, not sparing Magnus a second glance as he strode past him. Moments later there was a crash as Jessamine propelled an unknown item of furniture down the corridor and the siren began wailing at full blast.“Confounded gryaznokrova whore!” Ledovsky spat out as he retreated, his mouth twisting into a sneer when his gaze alighted on Magnus.No sooner had the Professor stalked away down the grand staircase than Janek appeared, a little out of breath.“Where is he?”“You just missed him.”“And Izzy?”“In her room– what happened?”Janek sighed, running a hand through his hair.“Long story... Izzy got into a fight with Mariya, Alek tried to intervene but Robyert just started yelling at him...”No surprise there, Magnus thought bitterly.“...and then
Izzy ran away to the station,” Janek finished, adding when he saw Magnus’ confused face, “for the portkey? There’s one in every major city.”Magnus never given much thought to how Durmstrang students got to the castle, but now that he did it made sense it wouldn’t be just a train, not with students coming from all over Eastern Europe.“Is she okay?” he asked, motioning toward the ongoing siren with his head.“She just needs some time to cool off,” Janek replied. “Guess that’s the end of Christmas, though.”There was an ominous thud from the entrance hall, and then a voice calling Janek’s name. He excused himself with a shrug and reappeared a little while afterwards, helping Max push a trunk up the staircase with one arm and pulling his own behind him. Magnus grabbed hold of the top trunk and helped slide it into the common room. Ordinarily taking the trunks upstairs would be a house elf’s job, but he supposed they were still on holiday.“I’ve got Max,” Janek panted, “you should go help Alek – he’s got Izzy’s too.”Magnus gave a nod, a touch unnerved by Max’s owlish stare, and hurried down the stairs.Alek was wrestling with two enormous trunks in the entrance hall, messy black hair falling into his eyes. At Magnus’ greeting he promptly dropped one on his toe, swearing viciously.“Shit, are you alright?”“Uh, yeah... hi,” Alek breathed, finally looking up with a dopey grin. For all of Catarina’s warnings, Magnus couldn’t help but return it.“Miss me already?” he teased.“Izzy found your note,” Alek replied, the crinkles around his eyes undermining his accusatory tone.Magnus didn’t think he’d written anything particularly incriminating – he’d just asked how the experiment was going.“And?”“I had to tell her we had a potions assignment.”“That wasn’t what I was asking.”Alek flushed, his eyes flicking upwards to check no one was watching them.“...I’m not talking about that here.”“So there’s something to talk about,” Magnus smirked.Alek rolled his eyes and started up the stairs without further comment.Once all four trunks had been squared away under their respective beds (or left under Jessamine’s watchful eye, as was the case with Izzy’s), Magnus acquired a tray of hot chocolates from the kitchen and settled down in the common room to hear the full story from Alek, Janek and Max.“You remember the vote on whether squibs should be allowed to enlist?” Alek asked, wrapping his hands around his mug. “Well Mum disappeared when we were out for Koliada. We didn’t find out ‘til later that she’d gone into court and rushed the vote through – half the Duma weren’t even there.”“Is that even legal?”“They met quorum, so yes,” said Janek grimly.They sat in gloomy silence, their hot chocolate rapidly cooling.“I don’t get why it’s such a big deal,” Max muttered, clearly not impressed with having his holidays cut short.“It’s not just Russia targeting squibs, Max,” Alek replied, “blood supremacists are everywhere now.”“I heard they’re releasing members of the alliance from Nuremberg,” Janek offered.“Exactly, and Lidia said Poland are thinking about bring back the blood register.”“But that can’t be just allowed to happen?” Magnus asked, truly unnerved at what he was hearing. “There'll be repercussions, sanctions from the CLAVE, or–”“Unlikely,” Jace said flatly, “the CLAVE never agree on anything and I doubt they’re going to start now.”They sat in anxious silence until Alek shook his head.“There’s no use worrying about it – it’s not like we can do anything.”Magnus knew he was right, but that didn’t help the knot in his stomach.Izzy stayed in her room for dinner, but Magnus, Alek, Janek and Max joined Vulchanova and Carstairs in the great hall. Neither professor seemed surprised to see the Ledovskys, so Magnus guessed they’d heard some of the earlier commotion.“Where’s your dad?” he asked Alek, who shrugged uncomfortably.“Probably in his flat in Ydrys – it's easier for him to work from there.”The look he shared with Janek told Magnus there was more to it than that, but neither of them seemed inclined to share.When they'd cleared their plates, Alek and Janek headed for the training room, eager to make up for lost time, and Magnus and Max settled down to read in the common room. While Magnus still had Guadalupe’s novella to finish, Max had used his Koliada money to buy some manga. Frankly, it looked a little risqué for an eleven year old, but that wasn’t really any of Magnus’ business.“Are you Alek’s boyfriend?”Magnus momentarily froze at the question, then turned his page carefully.“Why would you ask that?”“I don’t know,” Max said, scrunching up his nose, “he gets all weird around you.” There was a brief pause, and then Max added, “and he spent like two hours googling pictures of the Russian quidditch team without shirts–”“Okay,” Magnus said hastily, “why are you looking at his search history?”“I’m not,” Max replied indignantly, “it just comes up when I start typing.”“Well how would you feel if Alek was keeping tabs on every little thing you did? I bet he doesn’t know what that manga’s about.”
Max’s ears turned pink.“Are you going to tell him?”“No,” Magnus said simply, “some things are better kept to yourself.”
Plus he was 90% sure he’d have to explain what manga was to Alec and that wouldn be a whole other thing to deal with.Max looked at him suspiciously.“So you are his boyfriend?”“That’s not what I said,” Magnus replied, trying not to laugh. “Maybe give him some privacy? If there was something he wanted you to know, I’m sure he'd tell you.”Max grunted, seeming to lose interest, and went back to his manga.It was only when Alek and Janek returned from training that Magnus realised the youngest Ledovsky had fallen asleep on the sofa.“It’s been a long day,” Alek said fondly, shutting the manga and taking off Max's glasses.“I’ll take him up,” Janek said, lifting his brother over one shoulder. They watched as he climbed the spiral staircase to the junior dorms, Max still fast asleep and none the wiser.Alek held out a hand to pull him up from the armchair, and Magnus accepted with a yawn.“So Max had some interesting questions...”He trailed off, suddenly distracted by his proximity to six-foot of sweat-slick heavy-breathing Russian.“...Magnus?”“Sorry,” he grinned, pushing Alek’s hair away from his forehead. “Sweat looks good on you.”Alek batted his hand away, scanning the room to check they were still alone. Magnus tried to hide his hurt, but by the guilt on Alek’s face, he hadn’t been very successful.“I’m sorry,” Alek said in a low voice, “it’s just...”“I know.”“Maybe we could go somewhere, tomorrow?”“Yeah?” Magnus asked, hope fluttering in his stomach despite his better judgement.“Not Paris or anything, just, out to the woods.”“I’d like that.”As they headed to the dorms, Alek turned to him.“What were you saying about Max?”Magnus hesitated, remembering how jumpy Alek had been about him touching his hair – despite the fact that his siblings were the only other students around to see. Perhaps now wasn’t the time to mention Max’s theories.“Just... mundane stuff,” he lied.Janek came barrelling down the corridor, wishing Alek goodnight and crashing into the dorm. Magnus followed him with a soft smile.
He’d tell Alek about incognito mode, at some point.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next day, Magnus met Alek by the east gate at midday, as they’d arranged over breakfast. The sun was out, but it did little to combat the chill, and Magnus was already shivering in his denim jacket.“Is that the only coat you’ve got?” Alek asked, looking at it doubtfully. He was sporting the leather jacket he’d worn to Paris with a considerably more practical sheepskin lining.“What are you, my mother?”Alek shrugged, heading for the stables.“Your funeral.”Magnus’ eyes widened as Alek led out an enormous black horse with hooves the size of dinner plates.“This is Xanthos,” he said, passing him the bridle and then promptly disappearing again.“Uh... Alek?” Magnus said, eying the saddle nervously. “I don’t know to ride.”Alek returned with a second giant horse, looking faintly amused.“You’ll be fine – he'll follow his brother without any input from you.”Alek did something complicated with the leather straps hanging from the saddles, and then looked at Magnus expectantly. The stirrups – the bits he was fairly sure he had to put his feet in – were at least eye height.“This is a very tall horse.”“Well you’re not exactly short,” Alek said, clearly trying not to laugh at his obvious discomfort. “Come on, I’ll give you a leg up.”He interlocked his fingers so Magnus could kneel on them, and Magnus looked up at the saddle, full of apprehension.“I really don’t think this is–”“One hand on my shoulder, one hand on the saddle,” Alek said firmly, “all you have to do is get your foot in.”Magnus complied and Alek lifted him with ease, his toe of his boot just catching the stirrup.“Now what?” Magnus asked, unable to keep the anxiety from his voice.“Grab the pommel, stand up and kick your other leg over,” Alek said, nodding at the raised edge at the front of the saddle.Magnus did his best, eventually managing to slump forward in the saddle, and Alek patted his thigh as if to say well done. The head boy looped the reins around the highest part of the pommel, leaving enough slack for Xanthos to move as he wanted, before mounting his own horse in all of thirty seconds.It was... strangely attractive?The heavy wooden gates that separated the castle grounds from the woods swung open at a flick of Alek’s wand, and Magnus jumped as the horse began moving beneath him, his fingers white where he gripped the pommel.“Are we going far?”Alek looked over his shoulder, with a mischievous glint in his eye.“You’ll see.”Magnus’ trepidation only grew as they entered the forest. Vulchanova had informed him on boxing day that Christmas Dinner at Ms Gray’s cottage had been very much a one-off, and he was to remain within the castle grounds for the remainder of the year. With Weasley in the middle of the British countryside and Vulchanova glued to a desk on the other side of the castle, it was unlikely he’d be called to task, but still.“Are all horses this bumpy?” Magnus askedHe wasn’t sure how he was supposed to be sitting, but had a feeling it necessitated far greater core strength than he currently possessed.Alek snorted.“Not if you’re used to riding - most of the old wizarding families keep war horses.”“War horses?”Alek didn’t respond, picking up the pace as they passed the gate to Ms Gray’s cottage. The chimney was smoking and they could hear the sounds of children’s laughter from within – James and Lucie no doubt. They followed the path further until there reached a fork: to the left, the trees became sparser until they were replaced with the thatched roofs of Ydrys; to the right the path veered away from the lake, back toward the mountains.Alec pulled on his reigns, murmuring a few words, and the horses came to a stop.“If you wait here, I’ll take Balios to pick us up some lunch,” Alek said, looking uncharacteristically shy.“Is this... are we having a picnic?”Alek rolled his eyes but he couldn’t hide the smile on his face and Magnus was delighted. His fingers were numb and he could scarcely feel his thighs but this was definitely worth it.Alek clicked his tongue and Balios set off toward town, this time leaving Xanthos in his wake. Magnus waited until he was out of sight before taking his feet out of the stirrups and leaning forward.He’d always wanted to see Ydrys, and he wouldn’t have a better chance than now.The ground was further than it looked, and he stumbled as he landed, earning a look of disdain from Xanthos.“Okay horsey, you just stay there...”Xanthos paid little attention as Magnus glanced around and then shrunk into his animagus form, far more interested in the frosted grass around his feet.The day was no warmer as a cat, but Magnus could move faster on four legs, making quick work of the path toward Ydrys. Alek was tying Balios up next to a wooden stile, and Magnus waited until he’d climbed over before he approached.When he was close enough for the horse to hear him, Balios spooked, kicking up a fuss that had Alek looking back. Magnus pressed his body to the ground, praying the long grass would hide him, and breathed a sigh of relief as Balios seemed to recognise his scent.Alek relaxed, turning back toward the village, and Magnus climbed the stile, allowing Balios to sniff him as he passed. The giant horse whickered gently, and Magnus purred in reply.He watched from the stile as Alek entered a pub that he guessed must be the Hunter’s Moon. The village was quiet except for a few children playing gobstones and a couple making their way down the dirt track. As they drew closer, Magnus recognised the man’s broad silhouette as that of Alek’s father Professor Ledovsky. His hair stood on end as he realised he was arm in arm with a blonde woman who bore little resemblance to Mariya Ledovsky.He couldn’t warn Alek without risking someone recognising him, not to mention having to explain to Alek how he’d followed him without being seen. He watched, heart in his mouth as the professor stooped to kiss his woman on her forehead just as Alek re-emerged from the pub with a brown paper bag and a glass bottle stoppered with cork.Alek’s back went stiff, and he turned toward Magnus with a drawn face. Even from the wall, Magnus could hear the Professor calling after him. Magnus watched until the woman pulled him inside, before dashing toward the trees.He’d only just made it back to Xanthos when he heard the noise of Balios’ hooves approaching. He resumed his human form, almost offended Xanthos showed absolutely no reaction, and then rubbed his hands together for warmth.“All good?” he asked Alek as he rounded the corner.“Why wouldn’t it be?” Alek asked.He dismounted smoothly, unclipping the lead rope and guiding Balios off the path and into the trees. Magnus didn’t know what to say, so he followed in silence. To his surprise, Xanthos followed behind him, pushing his nose against his back whenever Magnus slowed down.It wasn’t long before they reached a clearing – if you could really call the gap between three trees that. The feeble sunlight hadn’t yet melted the frost, but it was relatively flat, and large enough for them to lay down the woollen rug that Alek had tied behind Magnus’ saddle.Alek secured Balios’ bridle to a tree a few feet away, winding the rope in a complicated knot that looked like a pretzel before untying the saddle bags. Magnus tried to copy his knot, and swiftly settled for a much less complicated one.“What’s for lunch?” he asked, stomach rumbling.“Lihapiirakka,” Alec said with a grin, pulling out the brown bag from before, the paper now spotted with grease.There were three meat pies apiece and Magnus had eaten two before he even sat down.“Fuck me these are good.”“I’ll pass on the compliment,” Alek said, trying not to laugh. He threw Magnus an apple, retrieving the bottle from the other saddlebag along with two carved wooden mugs. Magnus watched, curious, as he uncorked it and then tapped the bottle with his wand, which steamed gently.The mulled wine was rich and gently spiced, and as Magnus sipped it, the warmth of the mug slowly thawed his frozen fingers. It also went straight to his head – unlike the stuff from the common room, it had quite the kick.“I thought Izzy said you couldn’t get any alcohol in Ydrys?”Alek flushed lightly, shifting so they were side by side.“The waitress has a soft spot for me.”Magnus rolled his eyes, going back for more.“You and your admirers.”“Like you don’t have half the girls in the institute wrapped around your little finger,” Alek replied, a challenge in his eye.“That’s different,” Magnus said indignantly, “they just want free tailoring.”“Mmhmm.”Magnus bumped his knee against Alek’s.“You know what I mean.”“You’re cute when you’re jealous.”Magnus turned to look at him in mock outrage.“Excuse you, I am not jealous.”Alek shrugged and finished his wine.“Whatever you say.”“It is literally impossible for me to be jealous when we’re not– mmph.”He squeaked a little as Alek kissed him squarely on the mouth.“You done?”“Yep.”The wooden mugs, now empty, were discarded somewhere on the blanket as Magnus kissed him back with enthusiasm. He wasted little time in working his hands into Alek’s hair, twisting his body so he could press up against him.Alek’s hands slid inside his jacket, pulling at his jumper to bring him closer still, and Magnus did his best to comply despite the awkward angle. It took him by surprise when Alek leant back, pulling Magnus on top of him with a satisfied grunt.Magnus pushed himself up onto his elbows, studying Alek’s face. They’d never made out horizontally, and last time things had got this heated, Alek had frozen.“Is this okay?”“Obviously,” Alek replied, rolling his eyes as he pulled him back down.It been weeks since they’d been alone, and all Magnus could think was Alek had gotten very good at this, very quickly. He licked his way into Alek’s mouth, groaning as the head boy’s arms wrapped around his waist. Before long, he was straining against his jeans, ridiculously turned on by the feel of Alek’s body against his own.“Oh fuck,” he hissed, powerless to stop himself grinding his hips down, “if you keep doing that, I’m gonna–”He gasped as Alek rolled him over, blanketing Magnus’ body with his own and pressing him against the rug. The weight of Alek’s body did absolutely nothing to help his obvious arousal, but to his immense gratification, Alek seemed to have a similar problem.They rocked against each other, breath coming short and fast, and Alek buried his face in the junction between Magnus’ shoulder and his neck. Magnus moaned as nipped at the skin, then something cold and wet hit him squarely in the forehead.He jerked back, and Alec looked up at the canopy just in time to see the heavens open.Alek curled his body around Magnus in an attempt to protect him as cold, wet, sleet began thudding against the blanket. There was a whinny as Xanthos pulled against his rope and Magnus’ knot unravelled, leaving him free to bolt away through the trees.Alek swore, pulling Magnus to his feet as he began shoving things back in the saddlebags. Balios was pawing at the ground but Alec’s knot held fast.“You’ll have to go in front of me,” Alek shouted behind him, firing off a spell that lengthened the saddle.“Won’t I be in the way?”“It’s that or get up without my help.”Magnus climbed up into the saddle and shuffling forward as far as possible as Alek secured the saddlebags and strapped the rug behind him. He untied his knot, secured the rope, and then swung himself up behind Magnus.They hurried through the trees, Magnus resting his hands on the horn as Alek held the reins around him. Alek’s chest was warm behind him but he was still freezing, uncontrollably shivering as the frozen rain continued to pelt down.“Hold onto the mane,” Alek said into his ear as they reached the trail, and that was all the warning Magnus got until they were galloping flat out back to the castle. He could feel Alek's chest expanding with every breath, the last vestiges of a hard-on pressed against his back.They slowed to a trot as they reached the gate, and Magnus opened the door so Alek didn’t have to find his wand. Xanthos was pacing up and down outside the gate, clearly keen to get back to the stables.“Can’t believe he ran off,” Magnus muttered, and Alek’s breath was warm against his neck as he laughed.“Can’t believe you don’t know how to tie a knot.”Alek dismounted, holding Balios steady for Magnus to do the same. He stumbled forward when he landed, but Alek caught him around the waist, drawing him into a short but sweet kiss.If a romp in the hay didn’t sound so itchy (not to mention undignified), Magnus might have never let him go.As it was, he helped him take the saddles off the horses, then watched impatiently as Alek used a charm to help dry their coats and filled their nose bags with hay. His teeth were audibly chattering despite the noise of the storm, and Alek shook his head, removing his jacket and wrapping it around Magnus’ shoulders.“Keep it – I’ve got a wool one I never wear.”“Izzy’ll recognise it,” Magnus said, but Alek just shrugged.“She won’t mind.”The mad dash to the common room was probably the fastest Magnus had ever run in his life, although Alek looked like he was barely breaking a sweat. He took the stairs two at a time, waiting for Magnus at the top with a smirk.“You could have just got in the shower you know,” Magnus said, somehow still shivering even though he was gasping for breath.“What’s the fun in winning if I don’t get to see you lose?”Magnus gave him a withering look, and then began making his way to the boys’ dormitories with dogged determination. The corridor was empty, and for a split second Magnus wondered what it would be like to drag Alek into the shower with him and finish what they’d started. By the blush across Alek’s cheeks, he was thinking along the same lines.“Did I ever tell you about the prefects’ bathroom at Hogwarts?” Magnus began. Alek slowed down as they reached the end of the corridor, shaking his head. “There’s got to be over a hundred different taps – three of them are just different scents of massage oil...”“There’s a bath in my ensuite,” Alek offered, and for a second Magnus thought he’d misheard.“You fucking what?”“No massage oil,” Alek continued, “but lotion works pretty well.”He smirked, clearly aware of where Magnus’ mind had gone, and Magnus didn’t know whether to punch him or stick his tongue down his throat.“You are such an asshole.”He took a while in the shower.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Magnus looked down at where his knee rested against Alek’s and miserably failed at hiding his smile. It was New Year’s Eve, and Vulchanova had arranged a bonfire on the beach to mark the end of Koliada, complete with mulled cider and ‘smores’ at Max’s insistence – the house elves hadn’t had any marshmallow, but they were making do with chocolate spread, milk biscuits, and raspberry zefir, which where something between a marshmallow and a meringue.
Alek was wearing a double-breasted navy woollen coat that hung open by his sides, while Magnus had on the aviator jacket Alek had given him at the weekend. Janek had given it a double take when he’d met them on the beach, but he hadn’t said anything to acknowledge it. Instead they'd chattered about the quidditch cup while they collected loose driftwood to sit on.Janek had asked when they’d know if the insitute was still in the running, and Magnus had related what Raphael had told him by owl – Hogwarts were to play Beauxbatons the first week of term. If they lost, the institute would face off against Hogwarts again, and then Beauxbatons if they managed to win.While Magnus wanted Alek to be happy, he couldn’t help hoping the institute wouldn’t make it past another match – even if she wasn’t playing, Camille would be accompanying the Beauxbatons team, and Magnus would much rather her and Alek never met.
He looked across the fire, relieved to see Izzy smiling as she helped Max brown his zefir over the open flame. She'd finally made a reappearance that morning, surfacing with red eyes and a drawn face. Magnus didn’t know exactly what Mariya has said to her, but he gathered it had hurt her pretty bad.“Who’s got a New Year’s resolution?” Ms Gray asked, to a tepid reception. “I think this year, I want to find out more about my family.”Carstairs gave her a soft smile, and offered his next.“I’d like to get better at asking for help, and accepting it when people are kind enough to offer.”From Vulchanova’s amused reaction, Magnus gathered there was little chance of that happening.James resolved to not lose any more house points, Lucie to learn to fly, and Max to start drawing his own manga.“What about you Yelizaveta?” Ms Gray asked, and Izzy shrugged.“I dunno, probably just kick some more ass?”There were a few laugh, but Izzy's eyes seemed fixed on something in the distance. Underneath all that bravado, Magnus knew she was still upset.“Well I’m going to get better at replying to letters,” he said, happy to move the conversation on for Izzy's sake. He’d had a letter from Ragnor and Catarina yesterday to say that they’d booked their passage to Romania, and he was determined this time to take less than two months to reply.A wave crashed on the shore and the circle looked to Alek, whose eyes were fixed on the fire.“I’d like to try more new things,” he said, choosing not to elaborate further despite Izzy’s curious glance.There was a flash somewhere near the centre of the lake, and Magnus turned to peer into the darkness. A few minutes later, a giant spectral wolf emerged from the waves, opening its mouth to speak with the groundskeeper’s voice.“COME QUICK!”The patronus flickered and vanished.
“Lumos maxima!”Vulchanova wasted no time in directing a beam of light out over the lake, which picked up a flash of red hair.“Klara!” Janek yelled, already on his feet.“Wasn’t she–“Magnus cut himself off, realising abruptly that if Klara and Luke had returned from Hungary unannounced, something must have gone badly wrong.“The boat,” Ms Gray said, looking towards the cabin where it was stored. Carstairs shook his head.“There’s no time.”He stood up, a little unsteady without his cane, and began moving his wand. The waves faltered and changed direction, just as they had when they'd been setting sail for Hogwarts. This time, instead of creating a whirlpool, they produced a channel that carried a stream of water out from the centre of the lake.“Jem...”Ms Gray put a hand on his shoulder, looking concerned, but Carstairs only redoubled his efforts.A moment later, the light from Vulchanova’s wand picked up Farkas wading towards the shore, carrying a soaking wet and loudly protesting Klara.“Take me back!” she cried, wriggling out of his arms as soon as the water was shallow enough for her to stand.“I can’t,” Farkas snapped, “he put an anti-apparation jinx on the house.”“Who did?” Vulchanova asked.“Valentin.”A whisper went round the circle, Alek, Janek and Izzy all seeming to recognise the name. Magnus couldn’t help but feel he was missing some crucial part of the story.“You left them!” Klara yelled, shoving against Farkas’ giant frame as if she could somehow push him back to wherever they’d come from.Magnus’ stomach dropped. Klara had been spending Hanukkah with Simon and his family in Budapest.“How many?”Carstairs was leaning heavily on the librarian, looking faintly nauseous, but Farkas answered him without comment.“Three – the boy, his sister, and their mother.”“I’ll go back for them,” Vulchanova announced, brushing off the sand from her skirts and addressing the groundskeeper. “If we take the portkey to the station, we can come back via my office.”“I’m coming too,” Klara and Carstairs said as one, prompting immediate protest from Farkas and Ms Gray.“You can’t go,” Janek said, pulling her back, “you’ll get yourself killed.“Or more likely, someone else,” Alek added, his tone considerably less kind.By the looks of it, Ms Gray was having a similar conversation with Carstairs, who didn’t look any more pleased.“Robyert and Hodge are in the village,” Vulchanova mused, “not that that’s much use.”“The two of us will have to do,” Farkas agreed. “We’ll need you in the infirmary James.”He directed his last sentence to Carstairs, who inclined his head in agreement. Klara, however, wasn’t going to take no for an answer.“You don’t even know Budapest,” she said stubbornly. “I can get you closer than the station.”“You could,” Vulchanova said calmly, “if you were able to apparate. Since you cannot, the station will have to do.”Klara glowered at her, and then turned back to the groundskeeper.“I'll never forgive you for this.”Farkas smiled sadly.“And your mother would never forgive me if I’d let you be taken.”The headmistress and the groundskeeper strode off toward the castle, leaving Carstairs, the librarian, and a handful of frightened students in their wake.“I’ll take James and Lucie to bed,” Ms Gray said quietly to Carstairs, before turning towards the youngest Ledovsky. “Max, perhaps you’d like to stay in the cottage tonight?”Max nodded mutely, and Alek shot the librarian a look of gratitude as she rounded up the three youngsters and set off toward the cottage. There’d be little sleep in the castle tonight.“What can we do to help?” Janek asked, wrapping his jacket around a shivering Klara.“Not much,” Carstairs replied, “unless any of you are trained as healers...” he trailed off as his gaze alighted on Magnus, seeming to remember his resolution.“I’m a bit rusty,” Magnus said, pulling himself out of the daze he’d been in, “but I’ll do whatever I can.”Half an hour later, he stood in the infirmary with Carstairs, three beds at the ready as they waited for Vulchanova and Farkas to return. Klara had been banished to the common room, where Janek was feeding her copious amounts of alihotsy tea. Izzy and Alek were pacing the corridor outside.There was the clatter of shoes hurrying down stairs, and then Vulchanova appeared, shepherding a woman and a girl that Magnus assumed were Simon’s mother and sister. He was relieved to see their injuries looked minimal, but when Farkas arrived, he was carrying a limp figure in his arms.“I’ll take Simon,” Carstairs said, striding to meet them.
There was no sign of his previous fatigue, which Magnus assumed was due to some kind of potion. When they’d arrived at the infirmary, Carstairs had excused himself to his office, asking Magnus set up the salves. A few minutes later, he’d re-emerged, sipping a cup of tea and looking fully refreshed.Bile rose in his throat as Farkas stepped back and they could see the extent of Simon’s injuries. His skin was in ribbons and he looked far, far paler than anybody should be.“Magnus.”He jumped as Farkas addressed him, realising he was supposed to take care of the other two patients. Simon’s sister was crying silently, her fingers white where she was gripping her mother’s hand.Carstairs twitched his wand, and a curtain drew around Simon’s bed, blocking their view.“What’s happening?” his mum asked, looking anxiously between Farkas and Magnus. “Will he be okay?”Farkas gave Magnus a look of warning, and he hesitated, knowing he couldn’t make any promises.“Carstairs knows what he’s doing” he said quietly, hoping that would be some reassurance. “Are you hurt?”Simon’s mum quickly introduced herself as Elena and his sister as Rebeka. They had a few scrapes and bruises that Magnus took care of, but it seemed Simon had born the brunt of the attack.“He was facing off against two alliance members when we arrived,” Farkas said in a low voice, and Magnus widened his eyes. He didn’t remember Simon as having particularly impressive duelling skills from Hogwarts, but clearly whatever he lacked he made up for in courage.A minute or two later, Carstairs emerged from behind the curtain, his face once more shadowed with fatigue.“I was able to stabilise him,” he said, much to Elena’s relief.“Can we see him?” Rebeka asked.“He’s asleep now, and he needs rest to recover – as do both of you...” Elena opened her mouth to argue and Carstairs held up a finger, “but it won’t hurt for you to say goodnight.”The Lewinskys thanked him and then hurried forward to see Simon. Magnus didn’t want to intrude, but from the glimpse he saw through the curtain, Simon looked marginally more alive, if still pale and still.“Good work tonight Bane,” Carstairs said, patting Magnus on the back. “Poppy taught you well. Let me see to that before you go bed.”He addressed the last part to Farkas, who, Magnus belatedly realised, had a weeping gash on his left shoulder. The groundskeeper begrudgingly complied, and Magnus made for the common room to tell the others Simon would be alright.Klara and Izzy had already fallen asleep, curled up under blankets on one of the sofas. Janek shook them awake, and Klara threw her arms around Magnus when he passed on the news.“Can we see him?”“He’s sleeping, but Elena and Rebeka are with him now.”She nodded, turning to speak to Izzy as Magnus made his way over to Alek.“Simon’s going to be okay.”“I heard,” Alek replied with a smile, “in no small part thanks to you.”“I didn't do much,” Magnus said quickly, “Carstairs is the one who saved his life... I still don’t understand why the alliance were after him.”Alek’s eyes flicked toward Janek, who was watching fondly as Izzy and Klara caught up.“Not here.”He turned around and Magnus followed him in silence – down the stairs, out the east entrance and back down to the beach. They sat side by side on one of the larger pieces of driftwood, looking out over the lake. It must have been nearly two in the morning, but the fire was still hot enough to give off warmth.“The alliance weren’t after Simon,” Alek began, burying his hands into his pockets, “they were after Klara.”Magnus stared at him, still confused.“Does this have something to do with Valentin?”Alek nodded.“You might have heard of Mikhew Gregorovitch? Valentin is his son – the one that sold his father out to the death eaters.”Magnus raised his eyebrows. He’d heard of the wand maker, although he hadn’t realised he’d had a son.“And what does he have to do with Klara?”“He’s her father,” Alek replied, “not that she knew that until last year.”Well that explained why Vulchanova was so convinced Klara was practising dark magic, not that it made much sense.“Shouldn’t he be locked up in Nuremberg or something?”“He was until last week,” Alek replied, his expression grim.Nuremberg had released a handful of alliance members on appeal the day after Christmas, as Janek had mentioned the other day. More than one defendant had claimed they’d been under the imperius curse.Magnus shivered, suddenly cold despite his new jacket.“So he’s just, out there?”To his surprise, Alek took Magnus’ hand in his own, giving it a light squeeze.“He won’t be for long – it’s only a matter of time before he slips up.”“And the alliance?”“If they’re pinning their hopes on Valentin, they’ve got another think coming.”Magnus sighed, letting his head rest on Alek’s shoulder. For once the head boy didn’t move away, moving his thumb in circles over Magnus’ hand instead.They stayed until the embers had turned to ash.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Biscuit?”Klara looked up from where she’d been staring into space, gnawing at her bottom lip.“Oh, uh, sure.”Magnus handed her a chocolate digestive and sat down beside her, crunching on a second.“Have you put a memory charm on Simon?”Magnus choked on the biscuit, his heart suddenly racing.“Why would you even ask that?”“Whenever I ask him why you left Hogwarts, he kind of glazes over and says he doesn’t remember.”Well at least Flitwick’s work was sound.“So he doesn’t remember – have you thought that maybe he doesn’t go around sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong?”Klara flushed and he felt a twinge of guilt. For all that Alek complained about her, he knew she didn’t mean any harm. And yet...“I’m not an idiot Magnus. I know what a memory charm looks like.”“Do you?” he asked, not bothering to hide his scepticism.“I should,” she replied hotly, “considering I had them cast on me for over a decade.”“Wait what?”“Did you never ask yourself how I could have a best friend who went to Hogwarts and not know that magic exists?” she asked bitterly.Magnus stared at her.“But Simon–”“Wrote me every week without fail,” Klara said in a matter-of-fact tone. “My mother intercepted the owls, but she couldn’t stop us seeing each other in the holidays.”“He couldn’t tell you he was a wizard, though,” Magnus said automatically.The international statute of wizarding secrecy covered all of Europe, as he well knew.“You think that would have stopped him?” Klara asked, laughing despite herself. “As far as Simon was concerned, Hogwarts was the coolest thing that had ever happened to him. He couldn’t understand why I didn’t seem to care, even when he told me again and again.”“You had your memory wiped every time?”Magnus couldn’t hide the shock in his voice. Repeated memory charms could cause irreversible damage.“At first,” Klara replied, “and then my mum came up with a kind of perception filter. Every time Simon mentioned magic, or Hogwarts, or anything about the wizarding world, it got filtered out. To him it seemed like I just wasn’t listening, so after a while he just gave up.”“Klara, that’s...”“Fucked up?” She gave him a humourless smirk. “Well aware. So, did you wipe Simon’s memory?”“No, but...” He sighed. He didn’t want to lie to her. “Look it wasn’t my decision.”Klara went silent, her eyes hard as flint.“Why?” she asked eventually. “What was so important that it was worth–“She cut herself off, and Magnus sighed.He couldn’t tell her he was an animagus – Vulchanova aside, he couldn’t risk causing more trouble for McGonagall. He could, however, explain why he’d been so upset.“My ex knew all sorts about me – personal things, things that wouldn’t just hurt me, but might put me in danger if the wrong person found out.”Klara gave him a sideways glance.“Worse than being Valentin Gregorovitch’s daughter?”“You’d be surprised,” Magnus replied dryly, and she raised her eyebrows. “I made the mistake of trusting her, and then she ‘accidentally’ told the whole school.”He’d pushed Camille that night. Not only had Slytherin lost the house cup to Ravenclaw – for the first time in six years – but Magnus had turned up half an hour late, robes askew and accompanied by a distinctly rumpled Wosley Scott.Ralph Scott, the fifth year who he’d found screwing Camille, wasn’t a malicious person. When he’d realised the extent of Magnus and Camille’s relationship, he’d wanted nothing more to do with her – Camille, who’d never been dumped in her life. Two weeks later, Magnus had decided to rub salt in her wounds and promptly fucked Ralph’s older brother.It was petty, but he’d never claimed to be a saint.“So you just, what, charmed everyone within earshot?”“No,” Magnus said quietly, “I told you, it wasn’t my decision – I didn’t even know they’d done it until later. I swear, I would never ask for that.”It wasn’t an excuse – he understood that – and in the back of his mind he knew none of it would have been necessary if he'd never confided in Camille.They sat in silence, Klara back to chewing on her bottom lip.“He’s doing okay now you know,” Magnus offered, “Izzy’s been playing exploding snap with him all afternoon.”Klara looked a little guilty. Simon had been resting in the infirmary for over a week now, waiting until Carstairs deemed him fit to travel and McGonagall and Weasley had found some sort of temporary accommodation for his family. While he’d had regular visits from Izzy, who seemed equal parts intrigued and impressed, Klara had mostly kept her distance since he’d woken up.“I can’t help thinking that it’s all my fault,” she admitted in a small voice. If I’d never gone to Hanukkah, if Valentin wasn’t looking for me...”“You’re not responsible for his actions,” Magnus said gently, squeezing her hand.“I know,” Klara replied, but it was obvious she didn’t believe it. She hopped down, handing her uneaten biscuit back to Magnus.“Not hungry?”“Give it to Simon for me?”She set off down the corridor, not waiting for Magnus’ reply and studiously avoiding the open archway of the infirmary as she passed.It wasn’t until the day before school started that Professor Carstairs thought Simon had recovered enough to travel. Klara said goodbye in person, although there was a notable tension between her and Rebeka, Simon’s sister.“She blames herself, you know,” Magnus said to Izzy as they watched Klara give Elena an awkward hug.“I don’t know why – she’s not the one who attacked him,” Izzy replied.“I don’t think it’s easy, being the child of a war criminal,” he pointed out, and Izzy hummed.“Well at least she’s in good company.”Before he could ask her what she meant, Simon called them over to say goodbye. Magnus had spent enough time hanging around the infirmary that they’d become friendly, although unbeknownst to Simon he was mainly there for Carstairs’ snacks.“Let us know when you get to Hogwarts,” Magnus said as Simon used his hand to pull him into the same locker room hug-back pat combo Magnus had seen him use with Janek.“I will,” Simon replied with a grin, “and I’ll say hi to Raph for you.”Magnus hid a smile, knowing Raphael would turn his ears inside out if Simon used the nickname to his face.“I’m going to miss you Syoma,” Izzy announced, pulling him into a tight hug. Simon blinked a couple times before hugging her back, as if even he couldn’t quite believe his luck.“I could write you?” he suggested, to which Izzy gave a brilliant smile.Once he’d said goodbye to Max – and promised to write him too – Simon followed his mother and sister down the stairs to the entrance hall, where Vulchanova was waiting with a portkey. To Magnus’ surprise, Janek and Alek had taken a break from their incessant training to see him off, although Alek looked like he’d rather be anywhere else.The minute the Lewinskys had left, Klara left for Luke’s cabin with suspiciously red eyes. Janek followed her with an apologetic glance in Alek’s direction, and the head boy watched him go with a flat expression. Seeing the look on his face, Izzy offered to take Janek’s place, and her and Alek headed back to the courtyard to spar.Magnus stayed behind to watch with Max, curious to see what she could do. He’d seen Izzy duel in their OWL classes, but there sparring was more or less segregated by gender. The only fifth year girl who could remotely put up a fight was a sour-faced blonde called Vivian, but Izzy mostly partnered with him or Klara.Against Alek, he could see she was a formidable opponent, conjuring a silvery rope from the end of her wand which she used as a whip. Though Alek was clearly physically stronger, he struggled to get close enough to do any damage, confined to blasting jinxes at her shield and hoping one of them would break through.Suddenly Alek spotted an opening, moving faster than Magnus thought was possible, and Izzy swore as he tackled her to the ground and pinned her wand arm under his knee.He wasn’t sure what happened next.It didn’t look like a spell – Izzy’s wand was pointing to the wall – but somehow she managed to shove Alek's hip hard enough that all six foot of him toppled to the side with a grunt.Alek recovered quickly, rolling into a crouch with his arm thrown up to block a trio of stunning spells cast in quick succession. For a moment Magnus thought Izzy had won, but then Alek sent his own whip flying under her shield to tie her ankles together. She growled in frustration, lowering her wand to release herself, and Alek managed to get close enough to pin her arm behind her back.“Not bad,” he said, sounding a little out of breath as he tapped his wand against her neck, “you nearly had me.”“Yeah right,” Izzy muttered, disentangling herself before heading to the other side of the court yard. “Let’s go again.”Alek managed to best her twice more before Magnus decided it was too cold and went in search of a warm drink, leaving Max to watch alone. He didn’t see them again until dinner, where Izzy and Alek were both fresh from a shower. Magnus waited until they’d loaded their plates with pelmeni and chrain before asking Izzy how she’d managed to throw her brother.“I’m just saying, he’s not exactly light.”Alek gave him a look across the table as Max snorted.“You can cast everte without a wand pretty easily,” she replied, naming a spell that repelled its object away from the caster. “You just have to be touching them.”“How come you never taught me that?” Magnus asked Alek, and Izzy snickered.“Yeah Alek, how come?”“We had to start from the basics,” Alek said around a mouthful of food, much to Magnus’ indignation.Izzy scoffed.“What he means is he’s forgotten how to do it because he never has to fight people stronger than him.”“I remember how to do it,” Alek said narrowing his eyes, “but it’s true I don’t use a lot.”“Well, it sounds like it’d be useful for me,” Magnus pointed out.Unlike Alek, he wasn’t exactly working with a lot of horse power.“I’ll teach you on Tuesday,” Alec said casually, and Magnus tried not to look pleased.Until that moment, he hadn’t been sure whether their tutoring sessions would continue – not that there had been much tutoring going on recently.“Are you entering the tournament?” Izzy asked, and as Magnus raised an eyebrow, she turned to Alek. “You didn’t tell him?”“The institute has a duelling tournament every year,” Alek explained reluctantly. “The sign-up starts tomorrow.”“Janek won last year,” Max said proudly. "He's the youngest champion they've ever had."“Is there a prize?” Magnus asked.“Fifty galleons for the boys,” Izzy replied.“...and for the girls?”“Your name on the base of a cup,” she said flatly. "The boys get that too."He arched an eyebrow, and Alek shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable.Overt sexism aside, fifty galleons was nearly three time what he’d sold the necklace to Hypatia for. He didn’t have a clue what he’d be doing when he graduated, but whatever it was, it would be easier with that in a vault.After dinner, Alek pulled him aside at the bottom of the stairs.“I don’t think you should enter the duelling tournament,” he said seriously, and Magnus gave him an incredulous look.“Do I need to sink you into the floor again?”“Please don't,” he replied hastily, before pointing to two blank marble slabs that framed the entrance to the courtyard, each with a statue of a white raven beneath them. “You see those? From tomorrow morning, if you touch the raven, your name gets carved onto the list of competitors. No one really understands how they work, but sometimes they know more than you do.”He tugged at Magnus’ elbow, pulling him around the side of the staircase. Beside the portraits of quidditch teams across the ages, presumably the winners of the league, there were two silver cups behind a glass panel. Alec pointed to the one on the left, which was larger and more ornate than the other. Engraved on its wooden base below the title ‘Durmstrang Duelling Champion’ was a list of years, each accompanied by a name. While Magnus couldn’t understand the ones in cyrillic script, the most recent was etched in the Latin alphabet – J. K. Moravec.“I thought Janek won last year?” he asked, confused.“He did,” Alek said softly. “When he signed up, we weren’t sure if the scroll would recognise him as a Ledovsky or a Karkaroff... no one was expecting it to know his mother’s name.”Magnus looked at him sharply.“You mean–”“The tablet will show the name you were born with, whether you use it or not.”Magnus took a while to respond, a hundred questions running through his brain.“How did you know I changed my name?” he asked, deciding to start with the simplest.“I didn’t,” Alek replied, “not for certain, but it doesn’t sound very... Asian.”“It could be Dutch,” Magnus said pointedly.“Is it?”“...no.”
Padre Jeremías never shut up about the ‘bendición magna’, as if surviving the fall that killed his mother qualified as a blessing. When McGonagall asked him what name he wanted to be registered under at Hogwarts, he’d found a way to twist the meaning into something more suitable.His mother never called him by his name anyway – to her he was always sayang or tresnaku.He jumped as Alek’s fingers brushed against his, the head boy watching him with calm blue eyes.“Are you okay?”“I’m fine,” Magnus said automatically.Max’s voice echoed down the staircase, calling his brother, and Alek looked conflicted.“I said I’d help him with history of magic.”“Go,” Magnus said, giving Alek a little push toward the foot of the stairs, “I’ll figure it out.”As Alek headed upstairs, he stayed behind, staring at the cup and wondering if fifty galleons was worth the risk.He wasn’t even sure what name would appear.That night, for the first time since the holidays began, he dreamt of cold water, strange colours, and his mother calling out a name he no longer understood.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The first day of term brought with it a torrent of freezing rain and shivering students returned from their vacation. By lunchtime, the marble scrolls that recorded the entrants to the duelling championships were already lined with names, Janek, Lidia & Alek’s among them. At least, Magnus was pretty sure ‘Александр Ледовский’ was how Alek wrote his name.Which was frankly embarrassing, given that was the only cyrillic he could read.“Are you signing up?” he asked Klara, who was sat next to her.“Hell no,” she snorted. “Don't think I'd get too far.”Maia shot her a grin from where she was leaning against the bannister.“Don’t put yourself down... you could totally take some of the second years.”“Maybe,” Klara laughed, “but I’d rather not go down as the worst Gregorovitch in history.”She lowered her voice as she finished her sentence, and Magnus lifted an eyebrow.“You think it would show his name?”“I know it would,” Klara replied glumly, “my mum was married to him.”The distinction was a relief to Magnus – there was no way his father would marry a mundane, so at least he didn’t have to worry about what surname would show up.From where they were sat at the foot of the stairs, they could watch the occasional student break through the crowd to touch one of the ravens, egged on by their friends.“Max tried to sign up this morning,” Maia said casually. “I thought Alek was going to have a heart attack.”Magnus balked.“Surely first years can’t–”“Janek did,” Klara interjected, “where do you think Pangborn got the idea his mum was mundane?”Magnus swallowed nervously, finding ‘Jan Moravec’ in the sea of names.“Did he ever look her up?”“There wasn’t much to find,” Maia shrugged.Magnus turned toward her, his eyebrows knitting together, and Klara elaborated.“It’s a common name in Czechia, but other than that, we don’t know much. Tessa thinks she was one of the refugees sheltering here during the war, like Jessamine.”“They all died,” Maia added bluntly.Sometimes Magnus forgot just how many orphans the war had made.Suddenly the crowd parted, whispers spreading across the foyer as the dark-haired figure of Izzy made her way to the foot of the left-hand scroll.“She’s actually going to do it,” Klara said, and Maia swore under her breath.“Someone should get Carstairs.”“Lost, Ledovsky?” Pangborn asked, having crawled out from somewhere to bar her way. “The sign up to the girls’ tournament is over there.”“I know,” Izzy said coolly. “I’m signing up to this one.”There was a hush, and then Pangborn laughed loudly.“You can’t, moron.”“Can she?” Magnus whispered.“There’s technically nothing in the rules saying she can’t,” Klara replied distractedly, “but a last years ago some idiot tried to enter the girls’ tournament as a joke and wound up with pus fountaining out his nose.”“That wasn’t in the rules either,” Maia muttered.“Move,” Izzy demanded, glaring up at the seventh year and Pangborn rolled his eyes.“What aren’t you understanding suka, your side’s over there.”“What’s the matter,” Magnus said loudly, “scared she’d beat you?”Pangborn’s lip curled as he spat of a string of Russian swear words the filter didn’t even bother with.“She wouldn’t get past the first round.”“So why are you so scared to let her try?” Magnus asked, rising to his feet.Pangborn took a few steps towards him, and Izzy edged toward the raven, giving Magnus a nervous grin.“I don’t see your name up there,” Pangborn sneered, and Magnus shrugged.“I’ll enter if you do,” he replied, looking over his shoulder.By the time Pangborn had realised who he was talking to, it was too late, and Izzy’s outstretched fingers were already grazing the Raven’s wing. She looked up, and the foyer erupted with noise as ‘Елизавета Ледовская’ appeared at the bottom of the list.By the end of lunchtime, word had spread and a handful of sixth and seventh year girls had joined Izzy in entering the boys tournament. A furious Pangborn had gone to Starkweather to try and get them all disqualified, but the Martial Magic instructor had merely said if Vulchanova allowed it, then he would too.Izzy had hugged Magnus so tight he struggled to breathe, and through his laughter, he’d promised her he’d sign up when the queue had died down. That said, the simmering tension around the dinner table that evening almost made him regret he’d ever spoken up in the first place.Lidia was vocal in her disapproval of Izzy’s gambit, insisting she’d broken a rule that didn’t have to be written down. Privately, Magnus thought the head girl wouldn’t have minded if she’d been included – while Klara and Maia had known about Izzy’s plan, Lidia had only found out in Charms, hours after it had all gone down.Klara had just about succeeded in brokering a peace when someone brought up the Russian government’s recruitment of squibs, and Maia calmly announced she didn’t think it was such a bad thing.“What do you mean it's ‘not a bad thing’?” Magnus asked, unable to help himself, and Maia raised her eyebrows.“Have any of you actually met a squib?”“Have you?” Izzy demanded.Maia rolled her eyes.“Trust me – they’re better off in the army than anywhere else.”Magnus was excused from what would no doubt become yet another heated argument by Carstairs, who tapped him on the shoulder.“Could I have a word?”He nodded, swinging his legs over the bench and sending an apologetic glance to Alek, who sat between Izzy and Maia.Carstairs was slow making his way down the path between the long tables, but when he apologised, Magnus shook his head.“It’s fine sir, really – I’ve got nowhere to be.”The professor gave him a sceptical look.“So you’ll have finished that essay I set you this morning then?”“Finished it in Charms,” Magnus replied, and though Carstairs tried to look disapproving, Magnus could tell he was hiding a smile.“Yes, well, that’s sort of why I wanted to speak with you.” He took a breath, muttering a thanks as Magnus opened the door for him. “You’re a fine wizard Magnus, more skilled than men twice your age, and... I find myself in need of an assistant.”Magnus blinked.“You want me to work for you?”“In the infirmary,” Carstairs nodded. “It would only be a few hours a week, nothing to interfere with your studies–”“Yes,” Magnus interrupted, almost falling over himself to accept, “I’d love to.”He’d enjoyed helping the Lewinskys more than he’d expected, and having some actual work experience would make finding a job easier.“Excellent, drop by tomorrow and I'll draw up a schedule,” Carstairs replied with a pleased smile.By the time Magnus had gone to the library and pulled all the books he could find on wound care, the dining hall was empty and Alek and Janek had taken over the courtyard to train. Magnus watched for a while from under an archway, hiding a smirk when Alek spotted him and momentarily lost his footing.Janek turned, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth when he realised who had distracted his opponent.“You wanna take the last round?”Magnus shook his head with a laugh.“He’s all yours.”The slabs in the foyer were nearly full now, with what must be nearly a hundred names per side. As much as he’d promised Izzy he’d enter, Magnus still wasn’t sure he would.Lost in thought, he barely registered the brothers finishing their fight and putting away the weapons they’d been using. Janek took one at Magnus’ face as they entered the foyer and clapped Alek on the shoulder.“See you upstairs.”He wasn’t sure what exactly Janek knew about his relationship with Alek, but in all honesty he wasn’t particularly worried.Janek would never hurt his brother.Alec’s tunic was hanging open, his undershirt slick against his skin with sweat. Magnus was both immensely grateful and a touch jealous that other people got to see him like this.“You know you don’t have to enter,” Alek said breathlessly, pulling him out of his thoughts. “Maia never does.”Magnus smiled fondly.“I know.” He needed the money, but he didn’t want to tell Alek that. “If I do, will you look first?”Alek hesitated, but nodded all the same.Magnus took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and stretched out his hand toward the raven’s beak.He felt a spike of fear at the Alek’s soft gasp, not daring to open his eyes.“Magnus, it’s okay – look.”When he did, he found the spirals and curls of Javanese script.He didn’t even speak Javanese – the Saturday school he’d attended in Amsterdam taught Bahasa Indonesian, and his mum had switched to help him practice – but she’d shown him how to write his name, and hers.He recognised them both now, side by side, the name after his own a matronymic derived from hers. The syllables felt unfamiliar, almost foreign, as he sounded them out, but he could feel the emotion thick in his throat nonetheless.It had been so long since he’d seen that name written down, let alone heard it.Alek cleared his throat softly as footsteps rounded the corner, and to Magnus’ displeasure, he realised it was Pangborn and his fiancée.“Finally found some guts, I see,” Pangborn said with a curl of his lip. “I’ll enjoy watching you lose.”Magnus rolled his eyes, and Alec shifted his weight
to the other foot, clearly uncomfortable.“Why’s it all squiggly?” Voronkova asked, squinting up at the name.“It’s Arabic, idiot,” Pangborn snapped, and though Magnus could have corrected him, he didn’t really see the point.“But what does it say?” she whined.Magnus could feel Alek’s gaze on him as the couple turned to look at him.“My name?” he replied with an arch of his eyebrow.A third year passing by snorted loudly and Voronkova turned red. Pangborn shot Magnus a vicious glare as he dragged her upstairs by her wrist.“That wasn’t actually a dumb question,” Alek said quietly, and to Magnus’ surprise, there was a hint of reproach in his tone.“So?” he replied. “I can count the number of people who need to know that name on one hand, and trust me, Elena Voronkova is not one of them.”The head boy dropped his gaze, his expression inscrutable.“Right.”They walked up to the common room in an uneasy silence. Magnus was at a loss as to what he’d done – surely Alek couldn’t actually be feeling sorry for Voronkova, not with the way she talked about their friends.When they reached the end of the corridor, he brushed Alek’s arm with his free hand.“Hey, you think I could borrow Jessica to send a letter to Cat?”Alek nodded, worrying his bottom lip, and Magnus waited patiently as he worked up the courage to ask whatever it was he wanted to ask.“Does she know your real name?”He frowned.“Magnus is my real name.”“Fine, your other name.”“Cat? Why does it matter?”Alek shrugged, muttering something he couldn’t make out, and then pushed open the door to his room. Before Magnus could say anything else, the head boy had called out a half-hearted goodnight and abruptly shut the door.Magnus would have knocked, but Fedir emerged from the showers in pyjamas and struck up a conversation before he could. Perhaps if he’d been less preoccupied with why Alek was in such a mood, he’d have realised Pangborn wouldn’t take being embarrassed lightly.He’d barely drifted off to sleep when he woke to a deluge of ice cold water and Pangborn sitting on his chest.“Let’s see how smart that mouth is without your little friends.”He pointed his wand and Magnus spluttered as another jet drenched his pillow.“What the f–”He choked as Pangborn pressed down on his throat, exerting enough pressure to cut off his wind pipe.“Keep it down gryaznokrova scum,” he said in a low voice, “people are sleeping.”Magnus tried to turn his head, but the room was dark and the only noise he could make out was Fedir’s snoring.Pangborn’s hand relaxed and he sucked in a mouthful of air.
“We do not know each other well enough to be doing this.”In retrospect, Magnus should have seen the punch coming, but his mouth had always been a few steps ahead of his brain.“You sick fuck,” Pangborn hissed, choking him again, and Magnus pushed fruitlessly at his torso. Another jet of water hit his face, and he scrabbled at Pangborn’s hands, desperate for breath.In his mind he was screaming everte, but without his wand to channel it, it didn’t seem to be having much effect. He reached out to his bedside table and it fell to the floor with a clatter along with the book he’d been reading before bed.Dread began to set in as he realised Pangborn had no intention of letting up until he passed out, or worse. He was dimly aware of yelling to his left and a flash of light, and then Pangborn collapsed on top of him. What felt like an eternity later, the dead weight moved from his chest, and he could finally breathe.“Magnus? Lumos!” Janek was slapping his cheek, trying to get him to respond, but every breath he took still felt like knives. “Shit, Alek’s going to kill me...”Magnus grabbed weakly at his hand.“I’m fine, I’m fine...”Janek sat back, and Magnus pushed the sodden hair out of his face.“You’re bleeding,” Janek said quietly.Magnus put his hand up to find his lip had split. He’d be able to fix it, just as soon as he’d calmed down.“How did you–”“The book woke me up,” Janek replied, “and thank fuck it did.”Magnus didn’t respond, untangling himself from the wet sheets and standing up shakily.“Thanks,” he muttered, as Janek turned to cast a drying charm on the bedding.“Have you spoken to Alek about this?”“Not really,” Magnus mumbled.“Well you should,” Janek replied. “Why don’t you go now?”“I can’t wake him up,” Magnus protested weakly.Janek gave him a look he didn’t want to investigate too hard.“He won’t mind if it’s you.”Magnus sighed in resignation and pulled on his slippers.He really hoped Janek was right.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Well you look like shit.”“Thanks,” Magnus said flatly, facing off against Maia as they tried to complete the exercise Starkweather had set.He’d done his best with concealer and a smudge of eyeliner, but there wasn’t much he could do about his bloodshot eyes.He hadn’t dared to knock on Alek's door in the end. Not when anyone could see him, and Alek was being weird.Besides, he doubted Alek would have been much help – he and Pangborn largely kept their distance from each other, for whatever reason.Instead Magnus had healed his lip as best as he could without a mirror and made his way to the abandoned corridor, where he caught a few hours of uneasy sleep in his feline form.And then he’d skipped breakfast to avoid... well everyone, and made it to Martial Magic pretty much dead on his feet.“Earth to Magnus,” Maia called, and he realised it was his turn to execute the combo – a roundhouse kick followed by a stunning spell and an arm or wrist lock of their choice.He could go through the motions, but it was about as convincing as a wet blanket.Half an hour later, as Starkweather dismissed them, Maia pulled him toward the kitchens before Izzy and Klara had even finished packing up.“Come on, you need caffeine.”It turned out the house elves would give you pretty much whatever you wanted as long as you were polite. A giant mug of coffee later, and Magnus was feeling marginally more human, even with the wind gusting around them as they sat on the pebbled shore.“So what’s up with you?” Maia asked bluntly, huddling into her scarf.“Pangborn’s an ass, what’s new,” Magnus said flatly, and Maia pursed her lips.“He’s just pissed because he knows Izzy'll wipe the floor with him.”Magnus grinned.“You didn’t want a piece of the action?”Maia shook her head, shooting him a sideways glance.“Did no one tell you I’m adopted?”“No,” Magnus said honestly, “but why would that...”He trailed off, realising exactly why that would stop her from entering.“My mother left me outside a mundane hospital a few hours after she gave birth,” Maia said casually. “I have no desire to find out what name she gave me.”They sat in silence for a while, but Magnus couldn’t help his curiosity.“She left you at a mundane hospital, but you were raised by wizards?”Maia gave him a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.“Did you know there are wizarding adoption agencies who look out for kids doing magic? Apparently I doused three separate midwives with formula.”“On purpose?”“Guess I wasn’t a fan,” she grinned, more convincing this time, and Magnus snorted inelegantly. The idea of a baby Maia magicking the unwanted contents of her bottle over some poor unsuspecting midwife was too good.“You’re lucky they found you,” he said when he’d finished his coffee. “Trust me – the alternative sucks.”When Maia didn’t respond right away, he turned to look at her and she pulled a face.“My parents had a biological son before they adopted, but he was born without magic.”“He’s a squib?” Magnus asked, and she nodded.“They were devastated – they tried everything they could to ‘cure him’, and when they couldn’t, they paid an inordinate amount of money to adopt me.”“Your poor brother,” Magnus remarked and Maia laughed bitterly, shaking her head.“Trust me, that sadistic shit doesn’t deserve your pity – last summer he broke my arm, and the year before that he put bleach in my shampoo.”“And your parents don’t stop him?”“They don’t believe he’s doing it on purpose,” she replied. “I’m not even allowed my wand to defend myself, because that would be ‘unfair.’”“Fuck Maia,” Magnus said in a low voice, “that sounds awful.”She shrugged, meeting his eye with a wry smile.“Can’t imagine an orphanage was much fun either.”As they made their way back to the institute, he remembered the conversation from the night before.“So yesterday, when you said squib soldiers weren’t such a bad idea...”Maia hummed.“I know it’s not great, but I can’t help think that if Daniel had an outlet – or literally anything else to do – then he’d leave me alone.”“I guess,” Magnus replied, “honestly I’m surprised your parents take his side.” Maia furrowed her eyebrows, and he shrugged. “You’re telling me you’re not the favourite?”“Oh... yeah, no,” she said, looking faintly amused. “Turns out they went to all that trouble to make sure I was a witch and then didn’t even consider I might not white.”“Wait, they’re–”“Super fucking racist,” she smirked, and despite the bleakness of it all, Magnus couldn't help but laugh.He struggled through the rest of the day, spending his lunch break in the library to avoid any concerned questions or heated confrontations. By the time he was supposed to meet Alek for tutoring, he’d passed right through exhaustion and onto delirium.Alek was by his side the minute he opened the door, pulling him into the room.“Where have you been?”“I'm not that late,” Magnus said indignantly as the head boy shut the door behind him.“I meant all day,” Alek replied, “and last night – Janek said you never came back.”“I went to the infirmary,” he lied, avoiding Alek’s piercing gaze.Hopefully Janek hadn’t waited long.“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Alek asked quietly and Magnus sighed.“It was late, and you were mad at me, and–““I wasn’t mad at you,” Alek said quickly, his cheeks colouring when Magnus lifted an eyebrow. He stepped closer, frowning as he examined the faint scar on Magnus’ lip. “You were supposed to tell me if it got worse.”“And what would you have done?” Magnus asked softly.Just as he’d thought, Alek dropped his gaze, turning around.“He was on top of you?”Magnus nodded, setting his bag down and unfastened his tunic.“I tried to cast everte but I didn’t have my wand.”“I doubt that was the issue,” Alek said dismissively, and when Magnus shot him a confused look, he shrugged. “I’ve seen you summon things without a wand, and everte isn’t any harder. Were you touching him?”“I think so,” Magnus replied, his hand automatically going to his throat. “I was trying to pull his hand away.”He’d covered the bruises with foundation, but the memory was still painfully clear.“Show me,” Alek said quietly.Magnus took the other boy’s hand, gently placing it around his own throat and hooking his fingers over the top.“Like this.”Alek let his hand fall away, his jaw tight with anger.“Your palms have to be facing away from you for everte to work.”“I tried to push him as well,” Magnus replied, “at least, I think I did.”Truth be told, it was hard to remember what had happened in all the chaos. Not to mention he’d been panicking because of the water.“Here,” Alek said, taking Magnus’ wand from him and setting it down on a table. He took Magnus’ hands and placed them gently on his chest. “Now think everte as hard as you can.”No sooner had the word entered Magnus’ mind than Alek was propelled backwards, staggering to catch his balance. Unfortunately Magnus only had a few seconds to gloat before he was hit by a wave of dizzying nausea. His vision began to blur, and Alek rushed forward as his knees buckled.The next thing Magnus knew he was slumped against Alek’s chest, the head boy holding an open water bottle to his lips.“How much have you eaten today?” Alek asked, and Magnus frowned, taking over the bottle.“Why?”“Wandless magic takes a lot of energy – you passed out by the cottage, remember?”“Oh,” Magnus said, “then two hobnobs and half an apple.”Alek gave him an disapproving look and he had the sense to look mildly apologetic.He’d raided Carstairs’ biscuit tin when he’d picked up his schedule and Fedir had given him the end of his apple in Potions after he’d been staring at it a little too obviously.Alek summoned his bag and retrieved a pumpkin pirozhki wrapped in a napkin with one hand, the other still wrapped firmly around Magnus’ waist.“You weren’t at lunch,” he muttered in response to Magnus’ confused look.Magnus leaned up, planting an impulsive kiss on his cheek before biting into the pastry. He gave an exaggerated moan, hoping for a laugh, but Alek didn’t even crack a smile.“Janek says you won’t go to Vulchanova.”“It’s complicated.”Alek didn’t respond for a while, watching as Magnus finished the pasty.“I’m worried about you,” he said eventually, and Magnus hid a smile, tucking his head into Alek’s neck.“I’ll be okay,” he said, although he wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince himself or Alek.“You need to eat,” Alek murmured, “and get some proper sleep.”“Maybe Carstairs would let me nap in the infirmary if I told him Fedir snores,” Magnus mused.“You could always nap in my room.”Magnus let out a huff of laughter before he realised Alek was serious.“Aleksandr, this morning you nearly decapitated Klara because Starkweather asked where I’d got my wand binding and you were scared I was going to tell him it was a present from you.”“Well, you might have,” Alek said defensively, and Magnus sat up to look at him properly.“I wouldn’t,” he said seriously. “I may not like closets darling, but I understand why they’re necessary, and I would never, ever out you.”Alek nodded, the tension in his body dissipating as he leant forward to kiss Magnus softly, but there was still a wrinkle of confusion in his brow.“What’s that got to do with it anyway?”“You don’t think it would raise some questions if someone saw me leaving your room?” Magnus asked incredulously and Alek flushed.“They, uh, wouldn’t see you.”Magnus narrowed his eyes, suddenly wondering if Alek knew something he shouldn’t.Maybe he'd seen him in the forest, or when he'd snuck into Lidia’s room.“You can’t guarantee that,” he said warily.“Actually, I can,” Alek replied, and just as Magnus was beginning to panic, he carried on. “You know the corridor opposite the infirmary?”“What about it?”“Go there and ask for Will. Tell him I sent you.”Magnus screwed up his face in confusion.“How’s that going to help?”“Just trust me,” Alek said, “and go now – I’ll be at quidditch practice until dinner.”With that he helped Magnus off the floor, refusing to answer any more questions. Magnus was baffled as to what game the head boy was playing, but decided to humour him – at the very worst, he could take another cat nap.The corridor was just as empty as it always was, but as he saw the paintings lining the walls, Magnus had a flash of inspiration – perhaps Will was one of the portraits. His confidence dimmed a little as he realised the portraits’ names were mostly in cyrillic, and there wasn’t a ‘w’ to be found.
“It’s rude to stare,” a woman with flaming hair informed him, brandishing a sword in his direction. He had no idea how to pronounce ‘Нерида Вулчанова’ but he dimly recognised her from Vulchanova’s office.“Sorry,” he said hastily, “I’m, uh, looking for Will?”She harrumphed, jerking her head toward the landscape to her right.At least, Magnus had assumed it was a landscape. Now that he actually looked, he saw there was a nameplate reading ‘Уилям Вулчанов’ and a figure in the distance, who was slowly getting closer.As he came into view, Magnus had to blink to make sure he wasn't seeing things – with dark hair and clear blue eyes, the figure looked uncannily like Alek.“How can I help?” he asked, raising an eyebrow as Magnus stood and gawped at him.“You’re Will?” The figure nodded, and something else clicked in Magnus’ mind. “The Will who was married to Ms Gray?”Will narrowed his eyes.“Who’s asking?”“Uh, no one, sorry,” Magnus said, shaking his head. “Alek told me to say he’d sent me?”Will’s eyebrows slowly but surely made for his hairline.“Did he now?”“...yes?”“You know what? That actually makes a lot of sense.”Before Magnus could ask what that was meant to mean, there was a click and the entire portrait jutted out from the wall. Will winked, and then inexplicably began hula dancing as the painting slid to the left, covering up the armoured woman and leaving a neat hole in its wake.Magnus had been to the Gryffindor common room enough times to know he should go through, but the prospect didn’t seem particularly inviting – on the other side of the opening was a narrow, unlit stone passageway that veered off to the left.“You should hurry up,” Will whispered loudly, “Nerida gets cranky if I block her view for too long.”There was another loud harrumph from behind the gilded frame, and Magnus bit back a laugh as he climbed through.The painting slid back into place, and as darkness surrounded him Magnus lit his wand. He could hear the sound of running water to his right as he made his way down the passage – a bathroom maybe – and then high-pitched laughter. He must be moving parallel to the girls’ dormitories, he realised.He made a sharp turn to the right and found himself in what looked a dead end, until he noticed a wooden panel on the left-hand wall.‘Dissendium,’ he whispered, letting out a soft gasp as the panel slid backwards.In front of him was a rail of clothes – Alek’s clothes, he realised, as he recognised his wool coat and the threadbare jumper the head boy was so inexplicably fond of.What in the actual Narnia was going on?He slid them back on the rail, and pushed open the door to his right, trying not to think about the fact he was literally coming out of Alek’s closet.Caterina would have a field day.Alek’s room was large and well lit, with a plush sofa and matching armchair in front of an empty fireplace and a neat desk by the window. In the far corner there was a door that presumably led to a bathroom. Someone had mentioned a bath, but Magnus’ attention was drawn back the large four-poster bed in front of him, which was heaped with furs.He hesitated only a fraction before unlacing his boots. It would be politer to take the sofa, but it’d been so long since he’d slept in a proper bed, and he was pretty sure Alek wouldn’t mind.His eyes were already drooping as he climbed onto the bed and pulled some of the fur blankets over him. His last thought before he drifted off to sleep was how nice the pillow smelt.It wasn’t an expensive aftershave, or anything fancy – just shampoo and a hint of soap.It smelt like Alek.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
When Magnus awoke, the sun had long set and the room was nearly dark, lit only by candle light. Alek was working at his desk, too absorbed in whatever he was writing to notice the shifting of furs behind him.“Hey,” Magnus said, his voice scratchy from sleep.Alek looked over his shoulder and gave him a smile that was almost shy.“Hi.”“What time is it?”“After dinner,” Alek replied. “I would have woken you but you looked like you needed the rest.” Magnus replied, stifling a yawn as if to prove his point, and Alek nodded towards the coffee table that was in front of the fireplace. “I had the house elves bring you up a tray.”Magnus mumbled his thanks, suddenly realising he was starving. He pulled aside the furs, already missing their warmth, and found his way to the couch, which was a plush velvet maroon.The stew on the tray had been kept warm with a spell, and there was a hunk of fresh bread on the side. He devoured nearly half of it before he could put words together.“So are we gonna talk about the sex tunnel, or...”Alek made a noise somewhere between a groan and a splutter as the back of his neck turned bright red.“It’s not a sex tunnel–““I’m pretty sure it’s a sex tunnel,” Magnus grinned.“It’s not a sex tunnel,” Alek said firmly, before muttering something that Magnus didn’t quite catch.“Sorry, what was that?”“It’s for courtship,” Alek repeated, looking like he’d rather be literally anywhere else.The words rang a faint bell in Magnus’ memory, something Jessamine had said when she’d found them in Lidia’s room. So the head boy and girl were allowed visitors of the opposite sex, but only for ‘courtship’, whatever that entailed.“If I’d known I was courting you, I’d have brought flowers,” he quipped, and Alek rolled his eyes.“It’s not like we’re... you know,” he waved a hand to indicate something, though what Magnus wasn’t quite sure, “but you can sleep here whenever you want.”Magnus raised an eyebrow.“Really?”“Really,” Alek replied, flushing as he realised the implication. “I mean, I’d uh, sleep on the sofa, we wouldn’t–““Thank you darling,” Magnus said, giving him a fond smile, “but honestly a good nap was all I needed.”He couldn’t quite shake the feeling Alek was a little relieved.“Well, the offer’s there,” Alek replied.Magnus didn’t actually take him up on that until the next Friday. After a week of reading by wandlight until he was certain Pangborn had fallen asleep, exhaustion had crept up on him again. He spent the last ten minutes of Defence Against the Dark Arts slumped over on his desk, only to be awoken by a concerned MacMillan after all of his classmates had left.If he hadn’t promised her he’d get some sleep before lunch, he was pretty sure she’d have frogmarched him to the infirmary herself.He looked for Alek in the common room to no avail, but when he made his way to the abandoned corridor, a cheery Will winked and slid to one side without being asked.A less harried Magnus might have asked him just what Alek had said about him, if he’d told Will to let him at any time, but tired as he was he stepped through with a muttered thanks. Alek’s bed was just as soft as he remembered, and it took him all of ten seconds to kick of his shoes, dump his satchel, and curl up for a nap.
An hour later, the noise of a door being opened startled him awake, and Magnus sat up, wand in hand and his heart going a mile a minute.When his brain came back online, he realised two things: one, the reason he hadn’t found Alek was in the common room was because he’d had Martial Magic, and two, unaware that Magnus was in the room, Alek had stripped off his sweaty shirt the moment he was through the door.He cleared his throat, and Alek jumped out of his skin with an amusingly high-pitched yell.“I didn’t realise you were here.”“Sorry,” Magnus said, hiding a smile, “I should have asked.”“No it’s fine, I’m just, uh...
sorry I woke you.”He glanced down at his bare chest, and Magnus
couldn’t help the warmth that coursed through him when he saw just how far the head boy’s blushes spread.Oddly enough, they hadn’t really taken advantage of having a room (and bed) to themselves last time Magnus had come for a nap. Yet now, seeing Alek all sweaty and dishevelled at the end of the bed, it only seemed natural to scoot forward and hook his fingers into the belt loops of his trousers.“Trust me, there are worse things to wake up to.”“I’m all sweaty,” Alek warned him, and Magnus shot him a grin as he pulled him in .“That’s kind of the point.”He looked bewildered at that, but kissed Magnus back nonetheless. It didn’t take long for it to heat up, and by the time Magnus had coaxed him into his lap Alek was gasping for air and grinding his hips down in search of friction. Magnus was willing to bet he didn’t actually know he was doing it, which somehow made it even hotter.He moved his mouth to Alek’s jaw, and then lower, salt on his tongue as he licked a broad stripe down the side of his neck.“Don’t you have Charms?” Alek asked breathlessly.Magnus swirled his tongue inside the well of his collarbone, intoxicated by the stuttered breath it drew.“Hmmm?”“Charms,” Alek gasped, “Lidia left early so she wouldn’t be late.”Magnus moved lower, circling a nipple with his tongue before taking it between his teeth. As he bit down gently, Alek shuddered.“And she’s who you’re thinking about now?” he asked in an amused voice.“That’s not–
you shouldn’t be skipping classes.”“But this is so much more fun,” Magnus pouted, tightening his hold on Alek’s thighs. The head boy must have been distracted, because for the first time in all their sparring, Magnus managed to catch him unawares and flip him onto his back.Which Alek apparently appreciated. A lot.“Fuck.”Magnus looked up from where he’d begun lavishing Alek’s abs with the attention they deserved with a self-satisfied smirk.“You were saying?”Alek groaned, letting his head fall back as Magnus resumed his ministrations.“Come on M–“He cut himself off, swallowing a moan, before tapping on Magnus’ shoulder with two fingers – the gesture that usually ceded a fight.Magnus let up, levelling him with a look that was probably more fond than he meant it to be.“Yes?”“Stop... distracting me, and go to Charms,” Alek said exasperatedly and Magnus bit back a smile.“Such a goody two shoes,” he teased, ducking as Alek threw the wand he’d discarded earlier at his head.“Just go or I’ll give you detention.”An hour alone with Alek in some dusty old classroom?“I don’t think that’s the deterrent you think it is.”“And if it’s with Vulchanova and not me?” Alek asked, pushing himself up on his elbows.He was bluffing, Magnus knew, but he conceded anyway, clambering off the bed to retrieve his wand from the floor with a grin he couldn’t seem to shake despite Alek’s disapproving glare. He didn’t bother lacing up his boots before climbing back into the tunnel, blowing a kiss in Alek’s direction.Of course, it was only when he sat down next to a freshly-showered Lidia that he realised his textbook and his quill were still in a satchel next to Alek’s bedside table.“I forgot my bag,” he whispered.Lidia gave him a look.“Your whole bag?”“Yeah,” Magnus replied, “it’s uh, in my room.”There was a brief pause as the professor droned on, and then Lidia shook her head in disbelief.“Go, I’ll cover for you.”“Go where?”“To get it dipstick,” she hissed and Magnus blinked.Right, yes.He could totally do that.He looked behind him as he entered the common room, half convinced Lidia might be following him and see him take the wrong turn. Will was only a blurry dot in the background when he got to the abandoned corridor, but even at a distance Magnus could hear him wolf whistle as the painting clicked forward.Once he was back inside the passage, the frame
having slid into place behind him, he relaxed. It was risky using the passage twice in one day, but no one had seen him, and all he had to do was pick up his bag. Alek would roll his eyes and call him a scatter-brained dimwit but he wouldn’t
be mad – it’s not like Magnus had done it on purpose.The moment he pushed back the clothes in Alek’s closet, he paused.He could hear... breathing?A movement caught his eye between the crack in the door, and he froze as he realised what he was seeing.Alek hadn’t moved from the bed, although he’d kicked off the rest of his clothes. He should have been cold, but his skin was flushed, his right hand jerking back and forth just out of sight. Magnus watched, transfixed, as he brought two fingers to his mouth and swirled his tongue around them. He hitched up a knee, hooking his left arm underneath so he could reach lower still, and then let out a soft gasp as his eyes fluttered shut.In that moment, Magnus came to his senses, suddenly realising this wasn't something Alek would want him to see.He stumbled back, narrowly avoiding tripping over his undone laces, and extinguished his wand, suddenly worried Alek might somehow see its light.When he returned to Charms empty handed, Lidia’s eyes almost popped out of her head. Thankfully she had a spare quill, but that didn’t stop her wondering how on earth he could misplace an entire bag.“It’ll turn up,” Magnus insisted, although in all truth he wasn’t sure exactly how. When Charms was over, he was both relieved and on edge to see Alek waiting outside the dining hall the missing satchel slung over his shoulder.“You left it in MacMillan’s classroom,” Alek said as he handed it over. Magnus could tell he was nervous by the way he kept shifting his weight to the other foot, but thankfully, Lidia seemed to buy the lie.“Seriously?” she asked, giving Magnus an incredulous look, “why wasn’t that the first place you looked?”There was wrinkle of confusion between Alek’s eyebrows, but instead of sticking around to answer his questions, Magnus followed Lidia into the dining room with an awkward shrug.
His hopes that Lidia might let the subject drop were dashed when she spent the better part of lunch regaling their friends with the story of how Magnus took half an hour to look for a bag he’d left in his last classroom.“I swear, you’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached to your neck,” she teased.“I had a free in between,” he pointed out grumpily.“Which changes... what exactly?” Maia asked.“I had to retrace my steps.”He regretted his reply as soon as he saw Alek blanch out of the corner of his eye. For the rest of the meal he stared at his soup, horribly aware that Alek kept throwing glances his way, and then looking as if he were about to throw up.For the first time in over three months, Magnus arrived to Runes to find Alek sitting on the other side of Fedir.The weekend wasn’t any easier. Any time he managed to find a minute to pull Alek aside, the head boy had somewhere to be, someone waiting for him, or yet another flimsy excuse as to why he couldn’t just stay and talk.And it wasn’t like Magnus could say “look, I saw you naked and you know that, and I know that you know that but it doesn’t have to be weird I swear” in front of a full common room.By the time their weekly tutoring session came around, Magnus was half expecting to find the training room empty. Instead, Alek was already waiting for him, holding a pair of wooden staffs.“I thought we could try some weapons out today,” he said brusquely.“Is this your way of distracting me so we don’t have to talk about–““We don’t,” Alek interrupted.“Aleksandr...”“Please?” he said, sounding almost desperate. “Can we not just, pretend it never happened?”Magnus sighed.“If that’s what you want, but I’m still sorry. I should never have wat– ”He cut himself off, realising Alek might not actually know how long he was there, and the head boy looked up, his face pale.“How much did you see?”“Enough,” Magnus answered hesitantly, “but darling you’ve got nothing to be ashamed of – self pleasure is one of the most natural things in the world.”Alek hummed noncommittally, throwing him a staff.“You didn’t think it was... gross?”“Of course not, why would I...”Two spots of crimson appeared on Alek’s cheeks, and Magnus mouth formed a soft “oh.”It was one thing for him to find Alek jerking himself off, quite another to see him indulge in a form of pleasure the Russian almost certainly viewed as taboo.“You don’t have to–““Alek,” Magnus interrupted gently. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this – and please don’t let it detract from my entirely sincere apology – but seeing you like that...” He shook his head, biting back a smile. “It’s probably the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”Alek stared at him blankly, seemingly processing that information.“Oh,” he said, eventually. “Do you...?”“Sometimes,” Magnus shrugged, “it's better with someone to help.”He followed the movement of Alek’s throat as he audibly swallowed.“Right. Um, yeah.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “Bo staffs.”Magnus hid his smirk and let him redirect the conversation, not wanting to press the point. It was only when their time was up, and Alek was putting the staffs back up on the wall again, that he brought it back up.“It won’t happen again,” he said quietly.“What won’t happen again?”“Me just barging into your room, without asking.”“I meant what I said,” Alek said quickly, “you’re welcome any time.”“That’s very kind darling, but it’s your room. You deserve a modicum of privacy.”“I don’t mind,” Alek insisted.“What if I leave my bag again?”“You could leave it in the passage,” Alek suggested. “That way you could pick it up whenever you wanted.”Magnus hesitated, but admittedly that would have solved the problem.“If you’re really sure.”“I’m sure,” Alek replied, the corner of his mouth tipping up a little, “besides, the bathroom locks.”By the time Magnus had come to his senses, Alek was already halfway out the door, looking entirely too pleased with himself.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Beauxbatons won. She didn’t show.
R.S.
Magnus was frowning over the note, which was curt even for Raphael, when Klara dropped her fork with a clatter. He followed her line of sight to the front page of the newspaper Bat was reading.“Can I see that?” Janek asked, having done the same thing.Bat looked at him blankly, his coffee yet to have kicked in, but didn’t protest when Janek took the paper out of his hands.Splashed across the front page, a tall man with ice blonde hair was speaking from a podium – Klara’s father, he realised abruptly.“Yesterday Valentin Gregorovitch – recently released from Nuremberg prison – announced his intention to run as Hungarian ambassador to the CLAVE,” Janek read aloud.“Can he do that?” Klara asked, her face white.Lidia shrugged awkwardly.“It wouldn’t be the first time a former member of the alliance was elected to the CLAVE.”Her gaze flickered toward Alek, although the head boy didn’t seem to notice.“There’s more,” Janek said, his face grim as he read aloud from Valentin’s speech, which had been reproduced in full. “May our magic be pure, our blood run true, and our children, my children, live in a world where they no longer need to hide.”Magnus shuddered, and Alek and Lidia exchanged dark looks. There was little doubt that Valentin meant to challenge the statute of secrecy, but the phrasing seemed to have a secondary message for Klara: she couldn’t hide forever.The article was the first time Valentin’s children had been mentioned on public record, giving some legitimacy to the rumours about Klara’s heritage. Whispers followed the redhead wherever she went that morning, but to Magnus’ surprise, the other students weren’t afraid – far from it. Sure there was the odd second year who scarpered the minute Klara turned the corner, but the reaction from most of the school was one of begrudging respect, even admiration.“Did you expect anything else?” Lidia replied when he pointed it out at lunch. “Half the school have members of the alliance or death eaters for parents.”Magnus stared at her with wide eyes.“There can’t be that many can there?”“Pangborn, Yaxley, Helmut, Nott... did you never wonder why there were so many British surnames?” Bat said, faintly amused.“Not really,” Magnus admitted.“Russia has no extradition treaty with Europe,” he explained. “Anyone who escaped Nuremberg or Azkaban fled there after the war.”Magnus was still digesting that when Lidia casually added the reason Starkweather wrapped his wand so intricately was to obscure the dark mark branded on his forearm.“I'm sorry... the Institute hired a death eater?”“Severus Snape taught at Hogwarts for years,” Alek pointed out, and Magnus scoffed.“Right, cos that ended well.”At the end of the school day, Magnus made his way to Weasley's classroom. Raphael’s note had completely slipped his mind after breakfast, but once he’d remembered it in Potions, he’d resolved to ask his guardian for a favour.“...and thanks to Fudge’s reticence, the European ministries of magic weren’t prepared for the death eaters that had been set loose,” the professor intoned, adding ‘1996 – Azkaban breakout’ to a timeline on the chalkboard. “If he’d been forthcoming, we might have been able to prevent the 1998 riots.”The fourth years he was teaching looked bored out of their minds, a blonde in the third row muttering something under her breath.“What was that, Voronkova?” Weasley asked sharply.“What’s the point of learning this anyway?”As she spoke, Magnus recognised her as Elena’s younger sister, Katerina.“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” Weasley said primly.“Oh no,” she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.More of the class laughed than Magnus would have liked.“Have you forgotten hundreds of people died in those riots Katerina?” Weasley asked, his voice tight with anger.“Mundanes,” she shrugged, the curl of her lip making it clear how little she cared about them.“Mundanes are still people,” Magnus said quietly from the doorway, “and they weren’t the only ones who died.”Katerina looked around to see who’d spoken, giving him an absolutely filthy look as she saw who had.
“Polukrovka don’t count either.”“Right,” Weasley thundered, his eyes flashing in fury, “that’ll be four feet on the victims of the riots by Monday, for everyone, and I’ll be having a word with the headmistress about your language Voronkova.”The students filed out as they were dismissed, most of them groaning about the extra homework. As Weasley turned to greet Magnus, he sighed wearily.“I’m sorry you had to hear that.”Magnus shrugged awkwardly. Neither his father’s exploits nor his mother’s death were particularly fun to reminisce about.“I had a letter from Hogwarts.”Weasley blinked at the sudden change in subject,
looking pleasantly surprised.“I didn’t know you were still touch with your friends there?”“Just Raphael,” Magnus shrugged. “Did you know they lost to Beauxbatons?”“I did – Starkweather’s telling the team at practice.”“I was wondering if Ragnor and Caterina could come and watch the match? They haven’t seen Raphael since the summer.”“I'm sure we can arrange that,” Weasley agreed with an easy smile, and a huge grin stretched across Magnus’ face as he realised he hadn’t expected him to say yes. Maybe Percy feeling sorry for him had its perks after all.As he headed back upstairs, he noticed a crowd around the list of names for the girls’ duelling tournament. The sign ups had slowed since the start of term, but there were still a few trickling in.He drew closer, his stomach twisting in knots as he realised what all the commotion was about – Klara had signed up, and thereby confirmed she was Valentine’s daughter. Magnus knew exactly what it was like to be the talk of the school, and with all of their friends out on the quidditch field, Klara must have faced the masses alone.He searched in the library, the owlery, and even knocked at Luke’s cabin before he found her huddled in the quidditch stands, one of caretaker's fur hats pulled down over her hair.“I figured I might as well get it over with,” she said in answer to the sympathetic look on his face.He sat down next to her, rubbing his hands together for warmth. Starkweather was running drills for the chasers with Alek in goal and Maia and Bat flying interference.“Want some good news?” he asked, trying not to laugh when Klara narrowed her eyes in suspicion.“Is it actually good news?”“Hogwarts are coming for a rematch next month.”“Simon’s coming back?” she asked.“He is.”Magnus winced as Klara threw her arms around him, mumbling her thanks against his chest.“I really needed that,” she sighed, keeping her arms around his waist.
They sat in companionable silence for a bit until Magnus voiced the question on the back on his mind.“Do you think they’ve got a chance?”“Not if Lidia and Izzy don’t start talking to each other,” Klara replied, watching as Alek saved another one of the head girl’s shots.There was still an uncomfortable distance between the two chasers, which was plain to see as they flew. It was obvious to him that Lidia should have passed to Izzy, who’d escaped Maia with ease, but she far was too proud to do so.“If it’s any consolation, the Hogwarts team kind of hate each other as well,” Magnus admitted, and Klara groaned.“What is it with quidditch players and drama?”It was probably best he didn’t answer that.They didn’t have long to watch before the practice was over, and Janek was breaking into a run towards the stands.“Did you do it?” he asked, when he was close enough to be heard. Klara nodded, and Janek pulled her into a tight hug. “I'm so proud of you,” he murmured into her hair, his voice soft with affection.Magnus forced himself to look away, the moment almost too raw, too exposed for someone else to see.“We’re playing Hogwarts again,” Alek announced as he drew near, peeling off from the rest of the team who were headed straight to the hall.“I know,” Magnus replied with a small smile, “Raphael wrote me this morning.”There was a flash of surprise and then Alek shaped his expression into something unreadable.“You still write to Raphael?”“Not often,” Magnus replied hesitantly.“He–“ Alek cut himself off, shaking his head. “Never mind.”Magnus’ eyes were drawn to Max, whose laughter rang out from where he was perched on top of Bat’s shoulders.“I know he went after Max, but he did apologise.”“To you,” Alek said stubbornly.Magnus sighed, but the head boy had a point.“I’ve known him since I was eight, Aleksandr... he’s the closest thing I’ve got to family.”“I know,” Alek replied, his tone bitter. “Doesn’t mean I have to like him.”Magnus gave him a look, but was stopped from replying by Janek, who was watching them with evident amusement.“Are you two done bickering yet?”Magnus rolled his eyes as the tips of Alek’s ears turned pink, and the four of them followed the rest of the team into the castle for dinner.The hall was abuzz with the revelation of Klara’s surname, but the death stare Janek gave anyone who passed their table meant no one dared to interrupt their meal. In any case, the news that Hogwarts was coming to visit proved a suitable distraction for most.It wasn’t until he’d cleared his plate of pasta that Magnus noticed the Voronkova sisters were sitting a short distance away, Katerina clearly recounting their earlier run-in. As he watched, Elena said something in response, and Katerina briefly locked eyes with him before bursting into laughter.“What does polukrovka mean?” he asked Janek, who was sitting besides him.“Let me guess, Pangborn?”“Voronkova junior,” Magnus replied, keeping his voice low so Alek wouldn’t overhear.“It means half-breed,” Janek said uncomfortably, shooting him a concerned glance. “She really shouldn’t be calling you that.”“I've heard worse,” Magnus shrugged, “and Weasley was there.”Janek hummed, but he seemed conflicted.“If I stay with Klara tonight, do you think you’ll be okay?”Magnus blinked, nonplussed, and Janek nodded to where Elena was (as usual) draped over her repulsive fiancé.He felt a rush a shame
as he realised that Janek had been sleeping in the dorm every night since he'd had to stun Pangborn – without ever asking – just in case Magnus needed him again.“Of course, I didn’t even–“ he broke off, torn between embarrassment and gratitude, and Janek raised an eyebrow.“You sure? Cos I can stay if you want.”“No seriously,” Magnus said quickly, shaking his head. “You’ve done so much, and Klara needs you.”Janek clapped him on the shoulder, giving him a grateful smile.“Thanks bro.”He couldn’t lie, the thought of facing Pangborn alone wasn’t particularly appealing, but worst came to worst, he could always catch up on his sleep tomorrow.As had become tradition, Magnus stayed awake as long as he could, reading by wandlight into the small hours. Unfortunately, he hadn’t bargained for the sheer tedium of fourteenth-century wizarding economics.He only realised he’d drifted off when he awoke, gasping and drenched with water. Pangborn was towering over his bed, sniggering as he directed a second jet.This time, Magnus had the wherewithal to summon his wand from where it had fallen into the sheets, feeling a burst of satisfaction as he fired a bat bogey hex that narrowly missed the Russian’s ear. A third jet was dissipated with a countercharm, and Pangborn abandoned his attempts with a derisive grunt.It was suspiciously quick for him to give up, but their roommates had begun to stir.
Magnus dried his sheets, and then left to the bathroom to change clothes. He’d picked up the warmest things he could find – a pair of fleece pyjamas and the jumper Percy’s mother had gifted him for Christmas – but nothing could shift the chill in his bones.When he returned, wand gripped tightly in his hand, the room was unsettlingly quiet. He put a knee on his bed, and froze as it unexpectedly squelched. This time, the liquid was warm. He sniffed cautiously and recoiled as he recognised the distinct aroma of urine.Pangborn’s laughter was louder now, and for a brief, glorious moment as fury took over, Magnus imagined hexing him into the sun.He took a deep breath, grabbed the first pair of trousers he saw
and stormed out of the room, slamming the door as he went. He was halfway to the abandoned corridor, his wet pyjamas abandoned in the shower, before he realised where his feet were taking him. He came to an abrupt halt, shivering in the moonlight. The draw-string pants he’d picked up were thin and did little to combat the chill, and he’d left his slippers by his bed.If he’d been any less tired, or pissed off, he might have given up, but as it was, he began searching for an excuse to not go back. Alek had been mad Magnus hadn’t woken him up before, and he’d said he could use his room whenever he wanted – sure, two in the morning was stretching the definition of ‘whenever,’ but that was beside the point...Maybe this time he could take Alek at his word and accept what was offered. Maybe, just this once, he could be selfish.Will raised an eyebrow at the tie-dye pants, but slid the portrait to one side in silence so as to avoid disturbing his neighbours. Magnus knocked against the inside of the wardrobe, having learned from his past mistakes. There was no response, so he pushed the door ajar, almost jumping out of his skin at the loud creak.“Magnus?”He stepped into the room, and Alek rolled over in bed, propping himself up on one hand and squinting in the darkness. His voice was raspy with sleep, his hair was a mess, and he’d missed a button on his pyjama top.“I–”Magnus opened his mouth to explain, but to his dismay, hot tears slid unbidden down his face. He wasn’t sure if they were from anger or grief, but either way Alek seemed to understand.“C’mere,” he mumbled, holding up the duvet for Magnus to climb in, and he did, too tired to protest. Alek wrapped an arm around him to pull him closer, and Magnus buried his face in his neck. The moment he had, he began crying harder, sobs wracking through his body.Alek made a noise of distress, holding him tighter as he spoke into his still damp hair.“Sh sh shh... s’okay Mags, I’ve got you.”He ran a hand up and down his spine, still half asleep, and pressed a messy kiss into his hair as Magnus’ exhaustion ran its course.
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Magnus let out a deep breath, sliding further down into the warm water.The fact that Alek had a bath was already obnoxious. That said bath was enormous and placed right next to a window that overlooked Lake Lyn was downright rude.It had been two weeks since he’d begun sleeping in Alek’s room, but besides that first night, they hadn’t shared a bed. Alek had already left when Magnus woke up and he’d very chivalrously taken the sofa every night after that. Magnus felt guilty, of course, depriving Alek of his own bed, but it had been simply divine to catch up on his sleep.At least, until last night.He reached for his wand, sitting on the side, and sent another heating charm into the water.It had been a long time since he’d had a nightmare. A real one, not just vague colours and noises. His shoes scuffing on the pavement as his mama pulled him along. His own voice, asking where they were going in clumsy Spanish. A tall man with green-gold eyes watching from across the bridge.He’d been whimpering, Alek said, begging to go back and finish his hot chocolate.Alek had shaken him awake, moments before the fall, for which Magnus was more grateful than he could say. The head boy had held him as he sobbed, and Magnus had clung to him like he was the only thing keeping him tethered, because in a way, he was. He’d fallen back into fitful sleep only after Alek had promised to stay.It hadn’t escaped Magnus’ notice that his relationship with Alek had veered sharply into unchartered territory. He could tell himself it was no more than the easy pleasures he’d
shared with Wosley, but the idea of Wosley soothing him back to sleep after a bad dream was frankly laughable.And Alek was, well, Alek.He’d woken up to a pot of coffee on the bedside table and breakfast waiting by the fire. Sure the house-elves had put in most of the work, but he knew he had Alek to thank. When the head boy stopped by before school, he’d even offered to cover if Magnus wanted to skip Runes. There was no way it would work, given the Ledovsky patriarch’s temperament,
but Magnus had agreed all the same.Which was how he’d wound up alone, watching the sun rise from a steaming hot bath.Admittedly, there were worse ways to spend a Thursday morning.He took another breath, heating the water up a fraction more. His skin wouldn’t thank him, but anything less than scalding hot felt too much like the river water that had chilled him to the bone.He cast around for something to take his mind off the past, and chanced upon the bottle of lotion tucked away on the shelves next to the sink.Ah yes, Aleksandr and his lotion.The corner of his mouth ticked up as he remembered one evening last week, when Alek had come back from a quidditch practice to find Magnus reading in bed. His unabashed leering had Alek retreating to the shower with his face in flames, where for once, he’d spent longer than about thirty seconds.When Magnus had gleefully pointed that out, he’d been the prompt recipient of a pair of muddy socks to the head.After he'd finished his bath, Magnus found his way to the infirmary, where he was to help Carstairs take inventory of his store cupboard. He’d done the same every week for the past month, but Carstairs seemed surprised to see him nonetheless.“Magnus... I thought you were ill?”Magnus furrowed his brow, and then realised Alek must have told him he might miss Herbology later.“Oh. No... I slept badly, but I’m feeling better now.”“Bad dreams?” the professor asked, struggling to carry three large glass jars to his desk.Magnus didn’t think Alek had said anything specific – the shadows under his eyes spoke for themselves – but he was momentarily thrown all the same.“Uh, yeah, but nothing I can’t handle.”He stepped forward to help transfer the rest of the ingredients, and Cartairs sighed, thanking him quietly.“I could give you something to help you sleep,” he offered, his concern visible, and Magnus hastily shook his head.“I’m good.”Madam Pomfrey had given him sleeping draughts more than once at Hogwarts. While the lack of dreams was nice, he’d never gotten used to the feeling of being pulled under.They worked in silence, both of them counting the contents of the jars while Carstairs jotted down the totals in neat handwriting. Magnus was halfway through counting lovage seeds when brisk footsteps rang through the infirmary.“James? You better have some throw-wort lying about...”The door to Carstairs office was pushed open, and Magnus recognised MacMillan’s blonde hair through the crack.“I– uh...”Carstairs hesitated, his eyes flicking toward Magnus.“I know, I know, I should remember to take the silphium, I just–““Magnus,” Carstairs blurted out, “Magnus is helping me today.”MacMillan took a step forward and peered round the door.“Of course he is,” she sighed.Silently Magnus picked up the jar of throw-wart from the floor, where he’d placed it a few minutes ago.MacMillan opened it, plucked a leaf and quickly bruised it between her hand. Carstairs, who finally seemed to have come to his senses, took down a rack of test tubes from his shelf and uncorked one for her. Muttering her thanks, she added the throw-wort along with a few inches of water from her wand, and then returned it to the rack. The last step was a drop of her blood, which she procured with a dagger that had been stowed in her left boot.“It’ll take a few minutes,” Carstairs said, glancing nervously toward Magnus.If he wasn’t quite sure whether Magnus knew throw-wort was used for pregnancy tests, MacMillan was under no such illusions.“If you breathe a word of this to anyone, I’ll bar you from every feast left this term – including Saturday.”Magnus lowered his gaze and resumed counting the lovage seeds, pressing his lips together hard to hide his smirk.“Do you need...” Carstairs trailed off, nodding to the tall flask that was kept next to the test tubes, and MacMillan shook her head.“No, it’s just Percy.”Magnus eyebrows shot up at that, but commenting wasn’t worth missing a feast with Ragnor and Cat.A plaintive meow came from outside the door, and Carstairs rose to his feet.“If you’ll excuse me, I think I have a patient.”He went through to the infirmary, shutting the door behind him, and there was a brief silence as MacMillan gave him a speculative look.“Are you having sex?”Magnus choked on thin air.“I– sorry what?” he spluttered.“If you are, I hope you’re using protection,” she added calmly.“I don’t think you’re exactly in a place to judge,” Magnus said before his brain could stop him.Thankfully MacMillan only seemed amused.“Yes, well, you should learn from my mistakes.”“I’m not–” he hesitated, and then exhaled sharply. “Trust me, no one’s getting pregnant.”She gave him a sceptical look, and he returned to the seeds, desperately trying to remember whether he’d been at thirty or forty.“Silphium’s expensive, but Lidia has plenty of condoms,” she remarked and Magnus groaned.“Please don’t make me have this conversation with you.”“Look, even pre-ejaculate can–““I’m not having sex,” Magnus practically yelled. She arched an eyebrow and he clarified. “Not... like that, anyway.”“If you mean it’s not penetrative, pregnancy isn’t the only concern.”“I can handle a mundane infection,” he muttered, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. That was one of the first things Pomfrey had taught the OWL class.“And demon pox?” MacMillan countered.He snorted.“That’s not real.”She gave him a hard look and retrieved the flask from the shelf, uncorking it and pouring a measure into an second test tube.“I regret to inform you it is.”She held out her dagger and Magnus reluctantly added a drop of his blood. It smelt faintly of nux myristica, but the vivid scarlet came from witch’s ganglion.“So the giant worm...”“Oh I’ve seen paintings,” MacMillan replied, hiding a smirk as Magnus’ eyes flew wide.He racked the test tube in silence, blinking as as he saw the leaf in the pregnancy test had already turned an ink black.“The throw-wort’s ready.”MacMillan exhaled sharply and waved her wand to pull the curtains to.“Lumos lumen,” she whispered, directing the silvery light through the test tube, which she'd picked up. Magnus heard her swear under her breath as a faint green glow coloured the walls.“That’s positive,” he said, somewhat redundantly.“Not a word,” MacMillan replied sharply, “to anyone, but especially not to him.”Magnus nodded, and then quickly added a “yes ma’am” as he realised she couldn’t see him in the gloom.When the curtains were drawn back and sunlight flooded the room, Magnus noticed his own test had started bubbling. They watched anxiously as the liquid turned clear, and Magnus breathed an audible sigh of relief.“You got lucky this time,” MacMillan warned him “but you won’t every time.”“I’ll speak to Lidia,” Magnus replied, knowing full well he’d do nothing of the sort.The moment MacMillan left, he took advantage of being alone to pilfer a few alihotsy leaves, adjust Carstairs' notes accordingly, and pour out a second measure of the scarlet liquid, which he stoppered with a cork. Carstairs was still wrapped up with a third-year who’d come down with a fever, and he wouldn’t miss what he never knew he had.
That evening, when Alek came back from training with Janek, Magnus was sitting on his desk, smoking alihotsy out the window.“Long day?” Alek asked, his eyebrows raised.“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Magnus replied. “I’ve got a present for you.”He held out the test tube and Alek's eyebrows drew together.“What’s that?”“Witch’s ganglion, nux miristica, and powdered betony... I think – it tests for any sexually transmitted infections.” At Alek’s blank stare he elaborated. “I took mine earlier, but we should have really done them before we started fooling around.”“Oh.”Alek still looked confused, but he pricked his finger and added it to the test tube without any further questions.
“It takes a while to develop,” Magnus said, before offering him the cigarette.Alek sat next to him on the desk and took it with a frown.
“Does Carstairs know we’re... that I’m–““No,” Magnus interrupted gently. “I took a second vial when he was distracted.”The chance that Alek had picked something up from the asshole who’d blackmailed him and remained symptomless years later was slim, but there was a chance nonetheless.“What’s this for?” Alek asked, nodding at the cigarette as he took another drag, and Magnus shrugged.“No particular reason.”He didn’t say that he was hoping it would stop the nightmares, but from the look on Alek's face, Magnus suspected he knew.“Are you going to be okay tonight?”“I don’t really know.” He smiled thinly as Alek exhaled, and then mustered up his courage. “Do you think you could sleep in the bed?”“With you?” Alek asked, shooting him a sideways glance, and Magnus’ nodded.“If that's okay.”“Sure.”Magnus dropped his head onto the head boy’s shoulder and closed his eyes.“Thank you Aleksandr.”A few seconds later, Alek's test fizzed and turned clear, much to their combined relief.
When they’d both changed into pyjamas, they curled up opposite each other in the dark, Magnus’ heart in his throat. He’d been with Camille for nearly three years, and he’d never felt quite this vulnerable.“Have you done this before?” Alek asked. “Shared a bed I mean.”“A few times,” he replied. Camille’s parents hadn’t liked him much, so he hadn’t stayed long. “You?”“Only with Janek.”Maybe it was the mention of Alek’s childhood crush, maybe it was the alihotsy fizzing in his veins, or maybe he just needed to be feel something. For whatever reason, Magnus shifted forward fractionally, brushing his lips against Alek’s. The head boy froze, Magnus held his breath, and then Alek was kissing him back.Hands scrabbled under the quilt to bring each other close, and Magnus moaned into his mouth as Alek clutched as his hips hard enough to bruise. It wasn’t long before Magnus was pushing Alek onto his back and using his body to press him into the mattress.
“Oh fuck,” Alek swore, breathless even as he palmed at Magnus’ ass. He was already hard, and Magnus could feel the shape of his desire pressed up against his own. He rolled his hips filthily, relishing the gasp it drew, and kissed his way down the column of Alek’s neck.When he grazed his teeth along Alek’s collarbone, the head boy let out a shaky breath and gripped his arm.“You okay?” Magnus murmured, drawing back, and Alek nodded frantically.“Yeah, really okay, it’s just–“He screwed his eyes shut as Magnus rolled his hips again, and when a shudder ripped through him, Magnus understood what had happened.“Oh Aleksandr...”“Fuck, shit, fuck, I’m sorry,” Alek groaned, burying his face in Magnus’ neck, and Magnus chuckled.“There’s no need to apologise darling,” he said and Alek made a panicked noise that sounded a lot like “don’t laugh.”“Hey, hey, hey,” Magnus said, taking his face between his hands. “I’m serious.”“So am I,” Alek muttered, refusing to meet his eye.Magnus kissed his nose, and then the corner of his mouth, and Alek sighed, wrapping his hands around Magnus’ wrists.“Look at me sweetheart... did you have fun?”Alek gave him a look.“You know I did.”“No, not did you get off, did you have fun.”Alek frowned, and Magnus could tell he still didn’t quite understand.“Yeah?”“Then there’s nothing embarrassing about it.” Alek looked unconvinced, so Magnus continued in his best deadpan. “Oh no, the hot guy in my bed was so overcome by my sexual prowess he came, however will I recover from this devastating blow–“
He yelped as Alek hit him, but there was no real force behind it, and they were both laughing.“Okay, okay, I get it,” Alek said, after he’d wrestled his way on top. “I just didn’t want it to be over that soon.”“Who says it’s over?” Magnus asked, shifting so Alek could feel his still very present arousal. Alek’s eyes went dark.“Can I...?”Magnus arched up to kiss his cheek, smirking as fingers grazed his stomach.“I thought you’d never ask.”It wasn’t the most artful fumbling beneath the sheets – Alek was still working out the angles and the pressure – but Magnus wouldn’t have changed it for the world. The weight of Alek’s body, the press of his mouth, and the way he looked at him already had him half-wrecked.He stretched out a leg and arched his back, his eyes fluttering shut, and Alek made a noise like he'd been punched.“You’re so beautiful Mags.”“Kiss me,” Magnus asked, begged even, and Alek obliged, his mouth and tongue sure even as his hand clumsily picked up speed. When Magnus came apart at the seams, whimpering against Alek’s lips, the head boy kissed him so deeply he could feel in it his toes.They fell asleep with their limbs tangled together and Magnus’ nose pressed into Alek’s shoulder. For once, his dreams were blissfully empty.
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At breakfast the next morning, conversation ground to a halt as Professor Ledovsky approached the table where Magnus and the quidditch team were sat.“Your mother sent an owl last night – she’s tied up in the Hague so she won’t be coming after all.”While Izzy and Alek seemed wholly unsurprised, Max was crestfallen.“But she promised she’d be here for the match.”“I’m sorry Maksimka,” his father replied, ruffling his hair. “The assembly may not be ‘til next month, but there’s plenty of interviews and networking to do beforehand.”“Canvasing, you mean,” Izzy said bitterly.Professor Ledovsky's back stiffened, and he turned to face his daughter.“It’s probably for the best your mother had to cancel, so she doesn’t see you fawning over that zhyd.”“What’s a zhyd?” Max asked.No one answered, but Magnus could take a guess from the way it had passed through the filter, and the shocked look on Alek’s face.“I mean it Yelizaveta,” Ledovsky continued. “Your mother and I may overlook that makeup and the way you dress...” his eyes lingered on her skirt, which was a few inches shorter than the institute standard “...but there are some things we can’t ignore.”“Like what, exactly?” Izzy asked, almost daring him to say it out loud. Her father’s face darkened with anger.“I will not have my daughter throwing herself at some gryaznokrovka like a common whore.”Heads turned as he spat out the last words, and Izzy stared down at her toast, her cheeks red with embarrassment.“Oh fuck off,” Magnus said loudly, surprising even himself. Professor Ledovsky stared at him, stunned into silence, and he doubled down. “Simon’s a better man than you’ll ever be.”For a minute, he was certain the professor was going to hit him, but then he seemed to think better of it.“Aleksandr,” he said sharply, “get your pet under control.”Alek lowered his head, and his father swept away. In the silence that followed, Lidia gave Magnus a look of disapproval.“You shouldn’t have spoken to him like that.”“Of course you’d be on his side,” Izzy snapped, the bench scraping against the floor as she abruptly stood up. By the time Lidia had reacted, Izzy was already halfway out the hall, leaving her uneaten toast behind.“I didn’t mean– Izzy!”She called her name again, but the only response was the thud of the door as it swung shut. Alek drained his coffee and then went after her with a muttered goodbye.Magnus watched him go with a frown. He knew the head boy had his own problems to worry about, not least his father linking them together as he had. Still, it hadn’t escaped his notice that neither Alek or Janek had stuck up for their sister – or Simon, for that matter.“He’s lucky Klara wasn’t here,” Janek said, as if he was reading his mind. “She’d have gone ballistic.”“Why didn’t you?” Magnus asked curiously, and Janek shrugged in reply.“There’s no use arguing with Robyert – he doesn’t change his mind.”He turned to the youngest Ledovsky, offering to walk him to Potions, and Max nodded mutely. He was clearly still upset his mother had cancelled her visit, but as Janek struck up a conversation about broom conditioning, he seemed to perk up a little.When it was just the two of them, Magnus looked across the table at Lidia and arched a brow.“I only meant you shouldn’t swear at a teacher,” she said quietly. He barely resisted rolling his eyes.“Did you hear what he said?”“I did,” she replied, “but you antagonising him like that doesn’t make it any easier for Alek to keep the peace.”“Well maybe he shouldn’t,” Magnus said shortly. “Maybe peace isn’t worth keeping if it’s with a misogynist prick.”“Look, far be it for me to let sexism slide, but... it’s his dad, you know?”Magnus gave her a hard look.“I don’t, actually.”Lidia blanched.“Shit, Magnus... I didn’t– I didn’t mean it like that.” He tilted her head in acknowledgement and she put her head in her hands with a groan. “I just can’t stop putting my foot in my mouth today.”Magnus softened a little.“Izzy was pretty upset.”“She knows, right?” Lidia asked, chewing her lip. “She has to know I don’t think like that.”“I’m not sure,” Magnus admitted.Izzy had jumped to some conclusions, but it wasn’t as if Lidia had never given her cause to do so.The morning passed slowly, with his and Alek’s Ancient Runes class being particularly tense. Alek said Izzy was okay, but Magnus could tell he was holding something back. He didn’t see her himself until lunch, where she was sitting with Klara and Maia.“I take it you filled them in,” he said, by way of greeting.Klara looked up from where she’d been glaring daggers at Professor Ledovsky across the hall.“She did.”“Did you really tell him to fuck off?” Maia asked, sounding genuinely impressed.“It felt good,” Magnus grinned, taking a seat and helping himself to some of the soup.“Thanks by the way,” Izzy said. “You didn’t have to do that.”“Yeah well, it was kind of my fault.” She looked confused and he winked. “I hemmed that skirt for you.”Conversation quickly turned to what they were wearing to the feast the next day. Klara had gotten a new skirt for Christmas, while Maia was sticking to her usual dress robes. Magnus, on the other hand, was tempted to dig out the mesh t-shirt at the bottom of his trunk, if only to see Professor Ledovsky’s reaction.“I just want him to call me a common whore to my face, you know?” he quipped.“Fuck knows what I’m going to wear,” Izzy muttered, running a hand through her hair. Magnus had the feeling her dad disapproved of most of her wardrobe.“You always could go in your uniform,” Maia suggested, and Izzy wrinkled her nose.“What, and match Miss Perfect?”Klara and Maia both looked amused at her tone, but Magnus shifted uncomfortably. He wondered what Izzy had told them – it wasn’t in either of their natures to be catty.“Don't be like that,” he said, his eyes drifting to the other side of the hall. Lidia was having lunch with Bat and Alek, looking tired and subdued.“She started it,” Izzy argued. “You heard what she said on Kračun.”“I don’t think she meant it that way,” Magnus replied.He knew Lidia could come across as judgemental, but she wasn’t the kind to slut-shame – her comments came from insecurity, rather than disapproval.Izzy just shrugged.“Whatever... I’ll believe it when I hear it from her.”Even after they’d dropped the conversation, Magnus kept turning it over in his mind. He wasn’t exactly predisposed to like Lidia – not with the way she looked at Alek – but he couldn’t help feeling sorry for her all the same. She didn’t have a lot of female friends as it was, and she’d have less if Izzy kept freezing her out.What’s more, the rematch against Hogwarts was tomorrow, and if the tension between the two chasers wasn’t resolved, he was certain they would lose. It’d be no great sorrow to him if Institute didn’t make it to Beauxbatons, but he'd hate to see all of Alek’s hard work go to waste.As Izzy’s brother, and Lidia’s friend, Alek should really mediate, but he was afraid of making things worse. He didn’t fully understand why either girl was so upset, and he knew them both well enough not to press the issue. Magnus, on the other hand, had less of a sense of self-preservation.At the end of Charms, he tapped Lidia on the shoulder.“You and Izzy need to talk.”Lidia sighed, shutting her textbook with a snap.“Do you think she hates me?”“No,” he replied emphatically. “I think you’re everything her dad wants her to be, and that makes her insecure.”“...but Izzy’s Izzy – she’s got nothing to be insecure about.”“She shouldn’t,” Magnus admitted, “but she’s not as confident as she seems.”“I don’t think she wants to speak to me.”He sighed.“The only thing men hate more than a strong woman, is two. Don’t let them pit you against each other.”Lidia dropped her gaze, looking a little ashamed.“I’ll talk to her, I swear.” There was a beat of silence, and then she looked up. “By the way, care to explain why MacMillan asked me to leave a box of condoms in your pidge?”Magnus blinked at the sudden change in subject.“Uh... not really?He should have known MacMillan wouldn’t let that go.“So it has nothing to do with whoever you were getting handsy with?” she prodded.“No,” Magnus said hastily, trying his best not to think of Alek, “and you know I didn’t mean to drink for that.”She narrowed her eyes.“Anna Kravchenko.”“...sorry?”“Blonde, massive crush on you, takes Tansfiguration...?”“I have no idea who that is.”“Karina Mäkelä then?”“Lidia–““It’s not Maia is it?”“No,” he said exasperatedly, “and since when do you gossip?”“What, I’m too much of a prude?” she asked with a arched brow. He gave her a look and she grinned, holding out a brown paper bag. “Here.”“Oh for heaven’s sake, I’m not having sex.”“That’s what they all say.”She shook the bag, rattling its contents and he snatched it out of her hands as quickly as he could.“Do you do lube too?”“Yes,” Lidia replied, ignoring his heavy sarcasm.“Wait, seriously?”“Check the bag.”She winked and then left the classroom, and Magnus shoved the bag in his satchel without looking inside.When he got back to Alek’s room, the head boy was sprawled on the sofa, his boots hanging over one end. He grunted a hello when Magnus climbed out of the closet, but didn’t bother sitting up.“Long day?”Another grunt.“I don’t know what to do about Izzy.”“I spoke to Lidia,” Magnus offered. “I think they might be okay.”Alek hummed noncommittally.“It’s not just Lidia, though, it’s our mum too.” He looked up, catching Magnus’ eye with a quiet intensity. “At Koliada she told her she’d be lucky to die in battle, because at least then she’d bring honour to the family name.”Magnus felt his jaw slacken.“She actually said that?”“I thought I could smooth things over when she came to see the match, but...“He trailed off, eyes drifting towards the empty fireplace, and Magnus swallowed around the lump in his throat.Deep down, he understood why his mother did what she had. He was the child of a monster after all.But Izzy... Izzy was strong, and kind, and fiercely intelligent. That her own mother would call her death lucky, even if only to make a point, was incomprehensible.“I’m sorry, darling,” he said softly.“It’s alright – Izzy’s tough.”Magnus hummed in agreement, but he knew she wasn’t as tough as she looked.Much to their surprise, Izzy sat next to Lidia at dinner. Whatever they’d talked about, it had worked, and the air between them was significantly less charged. There were still moments where Lidia was tentative, and Izzy brusque, but for the first time in weeks, Magnus thought the quidditch team might have a chance.It wasn’t until he was getting ready for bed that he remembered the brown paper bag.“What’s that?” Alek asked, from where he was reading in bed.Magnus threw the condoms at him and examined the tin underneath.“A gift from Lidia,” he said, hiding a smirk at Alek’s violent blush.The lid had the words ‘Rasputin’s Remedy’ emblazoned underneath a picture of man with a bushy beard, who Magnus assumed was the eponymous wizard. The description on the side informed him it was waterproof, hypoallergenic, and – most importantly, given the size of the tin – self-replenishing.Now this, he could work with.Alek was silent as he went to put the tin in the bathroom next to the lotion, his brows drawn together.“Why would Lidia give you that?“ he called through the open door.“Relax,” Magnus replied, “she thinks I’m screwing Anna Kravchenko.”“Are you?”He leaned against the doorframe, taking in the view. Alek was on his side of the bed, wearing a faded Vampire Weekend t-shirt – a band Magnus was willing to bet he’d never heard of. He had the novella that Magnus got for Christmas open on his lap, and despite the lightness in his tone, Magnus could tell he cared about the answer.“No,” he said, with a soft smile. “There’s only you, Aleksandr.”
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“So if you’re living with him, and you’re fucking him, how exactly is he not your boyfriend?”Magnus gave Cat a look, and strengthened the muffliato charm he’d cast.“I’m not fucking him... as such, and we’re not in a relationship.”“Sounds like a relationship to me,” Cat muttered, leaning forward in her seat to watch through binoculars as Janek neared the hoops at the other end of the pitch.“It’s not a relationship,” Ragnor began, and Magnus flung out a hand in his direction.“Thank you–““–it’s just sparkling friends with benefits.”Catarina snorted inelegantly, but Magnus was prevented from defending his honour by Janek scoring a goal. The scoreboard updated to forty to zero in favour of the Institute, and cheers erupted from the stand.They were nearly an hour into the match, and the Institute was putting up a fight. With Izzy and Lidia’s conflict resolved, there was no doubt they had the stronger chasers, but any progress they made was hampered by the Hogwarts beaters.Since the start of the match, Bat had been shadowing Max – a tactic that the Institute had carried over from the last game. Zeke and Elliot, however, the two Slytherin beaters, weren’t focusing their attentions on the slight seeker. Instead they were taking advantage of Maia being spread so thin, as she attempted to single-handedly protect the Institute's chasers.That meant Izzy, Janek and Lidia were pulling evasive maneuvers left and right, and losing the quaffle far more often than they’d like. Frankly the only reason that Hogwarts hadn’t yet scored was the herculean efforts of the Institute’s keeper, Alek.Magnus watched as Malcom, the chaser from Gryffindor, intercepted a pass and made a shot at the lowest hoop. Alek had to throw himself halfway off his broom to block it, and then pull himself back up by one hand.“He’s not bad, your Aleksandr,” Caterina observed, and Magnus was torn between rolling his eyes and preening.“He’s not my Aleksandr,” he replied. “He’s not my anything, but yes, he’s a very good keeper.”“Well it doesn’t matter if his brother can’t get anywhere near the snitch,” Ragnor muttered.“Max is excellent seeker,” Magnus argued, choosing not to acknowledge Ragnor’s subsequent snort.He couldn’t help feel that the Institute was fighting a losing battle. While he had no doubt that Bat covering Max was essential, he knew the beater couldn’t match the seeker for speed. Max might be safe, but unless he put himself in danger, Lily would always beat him to the snitch.An hour later, with the scoreboard unchanged, Starkweather called a timeout, and the two teams congregated at opposite ends of the pitch. Alek was moving stiffly, and Magnus suspected he was injured. He made a quick excuse to Ragnor and Cat, and headed down to the pitch to assist Carstairs.The professor was already busy with Izzy when he arrived, but he greeted Magnus with a nod of acknowledgement.“I’ll take care of the chasers,” he said hurriedly. “Could you take a look at Aleksandr for me?”Alek, Max and Janek were in hushed conversation when Magnus approached, brushing a gentle hand against Alek’s elbow.The goalie jumped, jerking his arm away.“What are you doing?”“Carstairs said you could use some attention,” Magnus replied, swallowing his hurt.Alek’s gaze flickered toward his brothers, and then crowd of spectators in the stadium. Somewhere in the stands, his father was watching.“Here,” Janek said, turning a crate on its end so it made a makeshift stool. “I know your shoulder’s killing you.”The head boy sat down reluctantly, and Magnus ran his hands over the planes of his back as Starkweather addressed the team.“We’ve been flying for two hours,” he began, “and what have we got to show for it?”“Fuck all,” muttered Maia, to scattered protest.“She’s not wrong,” the coach continued. “Alek is more or less single-handedly carrying this team.”Max had his eyes trained on the floor, looking particularly defeated. As Magnus watched, Janek put a hand on his shoulder.“With all due respect sir, we’re doing the best we can.”“Well it’s not good enough,” Starkweather replied. “We’re going to have to put Velasquez back in play.”Alek stiffened under Magnus’ touch, and he ran a thumb lightly down the keeper’s spine to comfort him.“We don’t need protection any more than Max does,” Izzy insisted, but the gigantic purple bruise on her hip Carstairs was healing somewhat undermined her point.“I’m not sure moving Velasquez is the solution,” said Safar, shooting an apologetic glance in his Starkweather’s direction. “The moment Max is open, their beaters will target him, and we’ll be back where we started.”“We might as well forfeit now and just get it over with.”Max was probably the only one petulant enough to voice it, but it was clear he wasn’t alone in his frustration.Alek sucked in a sudden breath as Magnus’ fingers exerted light pressure beneath his shoulder blade.
“Fervens corpus,” he whispered, sending a pulse of heat into the affected area, and Alek’s head slumped forward in relief. As the team kept talking, he kept up a stream of warmth, spreading his palm flat against the keeper’s robes.“What if we forfeit the snitch, and win on points,” Janek suggested.To Magnus’ alarm, the rest of the team seemed to
actually consider it.“You’re kidding right?” he said sharply, unable to hold back. “Alek’s not going to last another six hours.”“I doubt you would either,” Carstairs added, with a piercing look at the three bedraggled chasers.Alongside Izzy’s bruising, Lidia was covered in mud from a fall she’d taken early on, and Janek’s skin was littered with cuts and abrasions.“We’ll just have to try harder then,” said Izzy obstinately.“And what,” Lidia asked, “quadruple our lead in an hour?”“You could always ask Pangborn to fly seeker.”Max’s voice was quiet and he looked like he’d already resigned himself to the inevitable. Safar looked disappointed, but surprisingly it was Starkweather who objected.“No one’s replacing you Ledovsky – that girl would fly circles around anyone who tried.”Madam Hooch sent up a flare to indicate that Hogwarts were ready to resume, and Magnus pressed down and away from Alek’s spine.“How’s that?”“Better,” Alek admitted, “not that it’s any use.”“The match isn’t lost yet,” Magnus replied, but he wasn’t sure if he even believed himself.They’d seen this play out before, last term, and Magnus still felt guilty about how things had gone down. As much as he wished he could, he couldn’t take back what he’d said to Raphael.He could, however, give the Institute a leg up.While the team were mounting their broomsticks, he tapped Maia on the shoulder and lowered his voice.
“Remember how bad it was when Izzy and Lidia weren’t speaking? Well the Hogwarts chasers are worse.” She looked confused, so he carried on. “Malcom and Annabel are dating, but Tristan’s Annabel’s cousin – he thinks Malcom isn’t suitable because he’s muggleborn.”“...and I care about this because?”“Because Tristan wouldn’t pass to Malcom if his life depended on it.”Maia cocked her head, the hint of a smile pulling at her lips.“He’s the blonde one?”“The brunette, but it doesn’t matter – aim for Annabel and you’ll cut out the middle link.”Maia swung her bat with a grin as she lifted off the ground.“Good to have you back on our side.”When he got back to Catarina and Ragnor, his friends were unsettlingly quiet.“Everything okay?” Magnus asked.Ragnor scoffed and took the binoculars out of Catarina’s hand.“You realise you just abandoned us to give his majesty a back rub?” she said pointedly.Magnus opened his mouth to tell her it had been on Carstairs’ orders, and entirely necessary, before quickly realising she wouldn’t believe him in any case.Instead he sat down beside her and kissed her on the cheek.“Have I mentioned how glad I am that you came? It means a lot, I promise.”Catarina only hummed in reply, but as the match resumed, she looked marginally less pissed off. Ragnor didn’t dignify his presence with a response.It soon became clear that Maia had taken Magnus’ tip to heart. Nearly ever bludger she hit was sent whizzing toward Annabel. As Magnus had predicted, Malcom and Tristan still passed to her, but with Annabel forced to dodge, the Institute could intercept. By the end of the third hour, they’d managed to triple their lead.“I take it this is your doing,” Ragnor remarked as Lidia scored her fifth goal of the match.An increasingly irate Raphael was barking out orders, but nothing he did could heal the rift between the chasers.“I don’t know what you mean,” Magnus replied airily.
When the Institute hit one hundred and fifty points, Raphael called out a warning to Lily, who was hovering above. She nodded her head, barely visible from the height, and resumed scouring the plains.The snitch hadn’t been seen since the beginning of the match, and both of the seekers were becoming increasingly frustrated. Yet if Lily caught it now, the match would be a tie, and Hogwarts would have to stay for a rematch the next day.Magnus doubted Alek would make it through a second match.Suddenly there was a glimmer of gold, out over the lake. Max shot after it, with Bat by his side, and Lily yelled down to Raphael as she followed.“A little guidance here Santiago?!”“Catch it,” he shouted, making a signal to Institute chasers.From there it all seemed to happen at once.Malcom caught a pass from Annabel and leant down low over his broom to make one last attempt at a goal. Elliot flew by his side to protect him from Maia’s wrath, while Zeke sent the second bludger hurtling toward Max. Lily, unencumbered by a burly Swedish beater, had overtaken Max, and was rapidly gaining on the switch.Down below Malcom took his shot, and Alek sent it bouncing back with the tail end of his broom. Annabel managed to catch the rebound and looped around for a second try. At the same time Max pulled away from Bat, his hand outstretched just behind
Lily’s.“MAX!”Izzy screamed, as the bludger honed in on its target. Bat reached out but he was too far behind for his bat to connect with it. With a yell of frustration Max peeled away from Lily, taking the bludger with him as she dropped into a steep dive.Back in the stadium the crowd gasped and for a moment Magnus thought he was seeing things. Alek was hanging from his broom by one hand, the other clutching the quaffle to his chest. With a sickening lurch, he realised the keeper’s bad shoulder was taking all the strain.He got to his feet, but Janek was already there, allowing Alek to drop onto the back of his broom. Magnus heaved a sigh of relief as Alek’s broom drifted to the ground and the brothers flew a low circle around the pitch, seemingly biding their time until the imminent tie.All eyes were on Lily as she skimmed over the surface of the lake, still hot in pursuit of the golden snitch. If Raphael noticed Alek pass the quaffle forward as the brothers approached the hoops, he didn’t think they were flying high enough to be a threat.Janek looked up, aiming behind Raphael’s head, and took a shot so steep it was almost vertical. It balanced on the bottom of the hoop for a moment, the crowd on tenterhooks. Raphael’s face paled as he swung around, and the quaffle toppled in seconds before Lily fingers closed over the snitch.The Institute had won by the narrowest of margins, and Hogwarts had been knocked out of the competition.The crowd roared and the Institute team descended upon Janek, brooms thrown aside as they piled on in celebration. Raphael's face was carefully blank as he floated down to the grass. He held a hand out to Alek, but the Russian declined to shake it. Magnus wasn’t sure if he could really blame him.“Shall we?” Catarina asked, standing up.The moment she saw him, Maia pulled Magnus into a sweaty, muddy hug, much to Ragnor’s horror.“We did it!” she yelled, and Magnus laughed into her hair.“You did it, you mean.”He caught Alek’s eye over her shoulder and his heart ached to throw his arms around him as well. Instead he disentangled himself from Maia and went to ask if his shoulder was okay.“Not really,” Alek grimaced.“You need a bath and a massage, preferably in that order,” Magnus said, before adding in a low voice, “or at the same time.”Alek’s eyes darkened.“Doctor’s orders is that?”“Magnus – are you getting ready with us?”Caterina’s tone left no doubt as to what the right answer was.“I should go,” he said to Alek, “but pass on my congratulations to the rest of the team.”The keeper’s face was unreadable, but he nodded stiffly.“I’ll see you at dinner?”“I’ll probably sit with them,” Magnus admitted, “but I’ll see you after?”“Right,” Alek said, sounding more than a little disappointed.Before Magnus could reply, Professor Ledovsky arrived to congratulate his children, and Izzy was pulling Alek away with a quick apology.“Trouble in paradise?” Ragnor asked dryly as he took in the worry Magnus’ face.
Magnus turned and linked their arms, making sure to ‘accidentally’ smear some of Maia’s mud on Ragnor's tweed jacket.“Nothing wine won’t fix.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Since the match had run so long, there wasn’t a lot of time for Magnus and his friends to get ready. Nor was there really an appropriate place – the Hogwarts students had arrived in carriages drawn by thestrals, which weren’t equipped with much beyond stowage and padded benches. Thankfully Flitwick had conjured a large marquee on Broslynn Plain, which was filled with soft pouffes, tea urns, and – most importantly – mirrors.To Magnus’ delight, his friends had pulled out all the stops. Ragnor was sporting a three-piece suit with an emerald waistcoat and a bow tie to match, Cat’s dress was deep blue to match the bejewelled hairpins that studded her locs, and Lily was wearing a lime green cheongsam.Raphael, never one for colour, had changed into black dress robes with a mandarin collar and silver accents to match the crucifix that was (as always) tucked out of sight. He looked like a particularly style-conscious priest.Magnus himself had made good on his promise to wear his mesh shirt, pairing it with a pair of skin tight black jeans and the same dragon belt he’d worn to the feast of Mokosh. His eyes were framed with liberal kohl, and there was subtle sheen glitter in his hair.At least he’d been aiming for subtle – Ragnor had already told him he looked like a children’s entertainer.“You’re less pissed off than I thought you’d be,” Lily said, studying Raphael, who was reclining on one of the pouffes.Raphael shrugged.“Going to Beauxbatons is pointless – Camille can’t open the store room from France.”“Still,” Magnus said, “we did kind of trash you.”“You did nothing,” Raphael replied coolly. “Your little crush and his endless supply of siblings were adequate, I suppose.”Magnus stuck out his tongue, but coming from Raphael that was practically effusive.As they walked over to the castle, Caterina and Lily leading the way, Magnus lowered his voice.“Speaking of siblings, how are little ones?”“Better,” Raphael admitted. “Padre Jeremìas seems to have come into some money.”He shot a Magnus a sideways glance, but Magnus shook his head.“Don’t thank me, thank him.”He nodded at Ragnor, who was on the other side, and Raphael rolled his eyes.“Mi cago en mis amigos...”“I beg your pardon?!”Ragnor’s indignation aside, the look of sheer alarm on Raphael’s face had Magnus cracking up before he could explain what had happened – while he’d heard Raphael’s aside in Spanish, Ragnor had most certainly not.“Okay, okay,” Magnus said, trying to get his laughter under control without much success. “There’s this thing called the language filter...”By the time they were sitting down in the hall, Ragnor’s affront had only grown.“So every time you switch to Spanish, he’s insulting me?”Raphael gave him a look begging him to lie but Magnus only shrugged.“More often than not.”Once they’d established what could get through the filter – idioms, slang, Raphael’s bitching – and what couldn’t – Magnus’ birth name, and Carstairs swearing in Mandarin – conversation settled back on the vaccine trial. Recruitment was being managed by Percy’s brother, Charlie, who it seemed Caterina held in high esteem.“It’s ridiculous,” Ragnor complained. “He must be twice her age, yet she’s more besotted than you are with him.”He gestured in the vague direction of Alek and Catarina’s mouth fell open.“I am not that bad,” she insisted, “he's just kind, and smart, and... good at what he does.”Magnus’ raised his eyebrows and took a sip of his wine. He was pretty sure she’d been about to say he was good-looking, which, given he was related to Percy, seemed unlikely.“What is the deal with tall, dark and handsome?” asked Lily curiously.Magnus shifted uncomfortably in his seat, fully aware she was referring to Alek.
“Who?”“The keeper – I thought you said he was straight?”“He is,” Magnus lied.“Which would explain why he’s been alternating between ogling you and scowling at Raphael for the entire meal,” Lily replied sceptically.Sure enough, when he glanced over Raphael’s shoulder Alek was doing his best to burn a hole in the back of his friend’s head.Magnus elected to ignore the first part of her comment.“I imagine he's still pissed Raphael tried to murder his little brother.”Lily’s eyes shifted away and Raphael glanced over his shoulder.“Let me guess, he wants me to say sorry?”“It couldn’t hurt,” Magnus shrugged, “although it’s Max you should be really apologising to.”Raphael only grunted and took another sip of his wine, but Magnus was pleasantly surprised to see he excused himself when Max stood up to leave. Izzy, he gathered, was less relieved with this turn of events, given she made to cut him off.After a tense exchange of words, Raphael was permitted to speak to Max, albeit under Izzy’s watchful eyes. Whatever he said, Max’s response had Raphael bursting out in bright laughter, and the pint-sized seeker shook his proffered hand with a grin. Izzy – kitted out in skin-tight leather – looked no less dangerous, but somewhat mollified.As Lily and the rest of the Hogwarts students made their way back to the carriages, Vulchanova arrived to escort Catarina and Ragnor to the fireplace in her office. Ragnor, softened by the wine, deigned to give Magnus a hug this time, and Catarina planted a kiss on his cheek.“We’ll see you at Easter?”Magnus squeezed her tight and promised he’d try and sort something out, before checking on the next table over. The Ledovsky patriarch had thankfully kept his distance throughout the feast, but Magnus was still worried about Izzy.At that moment, Simon was hugging Klara and Janek goodbye, while Izzy hung back with an overly bright smile. It had been a toss up whether she'd ignore Simon or stick her tongue down his throat to spite her father, but Magnus was relieved to see she'd picked the middle ground.
Alek, on the other hand, was watching him and Catarina with an odd expression on his face - one that looked suspiciously like jealousy. When Magnus caught his eye he looked away quickly, eyes flicking back over to the staff table.
By the time Raphael and Lily had left, the older Ledovskys had settled in the common room with the rest of the quidditch team. Alek gave Magnus a cursory glance as he arrived, albeit one that lingered a fraction too long on his exposed torso. They were playing truth or dare, and if it weren’t for the glint of mischief in Lidia’s eye, Magnus might have joined them.Instead he mumbled something about needing to speak to Carstairs, bade everyone goodnight, and headed in the direction of the infirmary. From there it was second nature to slip into the abandoned corridor and through the passage behind Will's portrait. He couldn’t have been in Alek's room for longer than thirty seconds before the door was flung open.Alek strode across the room, locking the door behind him with a twirl of his hand, and then slammed Magnus against the wall he was standing in front of.“Hi,” Magnus said breathlessly as Alek’s hands roamed up and down his sides. Alek didn’t respond, diving into a furious kiss instead.By the time Magnus had got his bearings, Alek’s leg was wedged between his thighs and his body was pinned to the wall.“Want you,” Alek breathed into his ear, hands already working on his belt, but Magnus put a hand on his chest.“Slow down sweetheart...”Alek jerked back.“Shit, sorry–““No it’s okay,” Magnus said quickly, holding him in place. “It's just we’re not in a broom closet, or a library, or the infirmary...” He grinned as Alek blushed, and drew him into a soft kiss. “There’s no rush.”Alek blinked, as if he hadn’t quite considered that before.“Uh, right, so... what do you–““We could always take that bath?” Magnus joked, fully expecting Alek to say no. Instead the head boy bit his lip and nodded.Scarcely believing his luck, Magnus volunteered to draw the bath while Alek rinsed off the remainders of the match, having only had a short shower before dinner. In deference to the head boy’s (inexplicable) shyness, Magnus had transfigured the walls of the shower to frosted glass, and used an inordinate amount of sweet-smelling bubble bath.When Alek creaked open the door, Magnus was already undressed and in the water, reclining against one side of the tub. He’d lit some candles he’d found in the back of a cupboard and the lube Lidia had gifted him was coincidentally in reach.“You have to shut your eyes,” Alek said, sticking his head out around the door.Istead of teasing him Magnus dutifully complied.The water sloshed as Alek climbed into the bath, and Magnus peeked through his eyelashes as he settled on the other side. The tub was enormous, but they were both quite tall, and Alek had his knees drawn up against his chest to avoid touching Magnus.It would be mildly offensive if it wasn’t so adorable.“Come here,” Magnus said, curling a leg up and guiding Alek to sit in front of him.The head boy was tense, but he relaxed as Magnus dropped a kiss on his shoulder. Magnus slid his hands over Alek’s back and began working where he’d found the tension before.“Oh fuck,” Alek murmured, letting his head drop forward.Magnus hummed lightly, and paused to unscrew the pot to his left. Alek turned his head at the noise, and Magnus had to stifle a laugh at his panicked expression.“It’s just for your back – don’t worry.”With the addition of lube there was less pulling of the skin, and Magnus could really dig into the sore muscles. Alek’s breath came in gasps and shudders, interspersed with the odd swearword – which was about as vocal as he got – but whenever Magnus asked if he was okay, he nodded breathlessly.Minute by minute and stroke by stroke, Magnus unravelled the knots in Alek’s muscles, and the head boy melted into a puddle under his hands. He’d be lying if he said it wasn’t kind of hot. Lidia’s gift turned out to be as waterproof as promised, allowing Magnus to dig his thumbs into Alek’s hip flexors in a way that had the keeper's eyes rolling back in his head.“How are you so good at this?” Alek mumbled, letting his head drop against Magnus’ shoulder.Magnus grinned, kissing the side of his neck.The answer was a lot of practice, but he doubted Alek would appreciate that.He rubbed circles down the meat of Alek’s thighs, his thumb smoothing over the dark hair, and then brought his left hand around to rest lightly on the inside of the keeper’s knee. Alek was still as Magnus brushed his fingers up the soft flesh of his inner thigh and dropped another kiss on his shoulder.“Is this okay?”Alek inhaled sharply, his eyes fluttering shut.“Fuck, yes, please...”At the first touch of his fingers, Alek’s mouth fell open, and Magnus watched, entranced. Sure they’d fumbled around a bit the other night, but nothing came close to seeing someone like this, all artifice and bluster stripped away. When the keeper turned to muffle a moan against Magnus’ jaw, he ducked his head to meet him in a slow and sweet kiss.His strokes were slow, but firm, luxuriating in the feel of the warm water and glide of skin on skin. Before long Alek was shuddering in his arms, biting back a groan as he climaxed. Magnus kept working him over until Alek grabbed his hand with a sharp gasp.“Too much?” Magnus murmured.“Just enough,” Alek replied, settling back against his chest with a grunted sigh. Magnus wrapped his arm around his waist and pressed a kiss to his temple.“C’mon, let's get to bed – you must be exhausted.”“What about you?” Alek mumbled, and Magnus shrugged.“I seem to recall I owe you – rather a lot.”“We need to shower anyway,” Alek pointed out.When that shower inevitably ended up with Alek on his knees, wrapping his lips around Magnus and curling his tongue just so, Magnus didn’t exactly complain. In fact he was so vocal with his approval that Alek had to stop and remind him his bathroom was a stone’s throw away from the dormitory Magnus shared with Pangborn and Janek.“Come here and shut me up then,” Magnus suggested, entirely unabashed.Instead Alek swallowed him to the root, fingers digging into his ass, and Magnus came with a string of shouted expletives in Spanish.“You’re ridiculous, you know,” said Alek, pressing an open-mouthed kiss into his stomach.“And you love it,” Magnus replied, pulling him back up.They stayed wrapped up in one another for a while, trading kisses until the water began to cool and Alek was half a sleep on his feet. As they curled up in bed, Magnus wearing a pair of sweatpants he'd commandeered and Alek’s arm wrapped firmly around his waist, Magnus was utterly content.He didn’t care what Catarina said. This was worth all the longing looks, and the secrets, and the lies. Alek was worth it.Hell, he’d be worth a lot more.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Magnus wasn’t sure if he was still dreaming at first. Alek was wrapped around him still, and the head boy’s breath was warm on the back of his neck.Then it sounded again, a knock at the door.“Alek, are you there?” Max’s voice called out.Alek’s arm tightened around him as they were both jolted into wakefulness. “Fuck fuck fuck,” Alek chanted under his breath, launching himself out of bed and pulling on a T-shirt.“Go,” Magnus urged, “I’ll figure something out.”“Just a minute,” Alek replied to Max.He moved toward the door, checked Magnus had climbed into the closet, and then whispered an “alohomora.”Just as Magnus was about to pull shut the closet shut, something caught his eye. Outside the bathroom, thrown carelessly on the floor, were the garments he’d been wearing last night. While Alek could probably explain away the dress robes and the black jeans, the mesh t-shirt and the bejewelled belt buckle were considerably less his style.For the first time in his life, Magnus wished his clothes were less memorable.He climbed out, ignoring Alek’s panicked wide eyes, and sprinted across the room as quickly as he could. Behind him he heard Max push open the now unlocked door, which Alek caught with his foot.“...why are you being weird?” Max asked.“I’m not.”“Can I come in then?”Magnus did the best he could in the time he had, which meant throwing his clothes under Alek’s desk and ducking behind an armchair just as Max stepped into the room.Alek came into view, his eyes flicking over to where the closet door was still hanging open.“Do you want something to drink?” he asked Max, his voice a long way from casual.“I’m good,” Max replied, sitting down on the sofa mere meters away from where Magnus was hiding.Magnus resisted the temptation to swear under his breath. There was no way he could get to the wardrobe without being seen.“Not even hot chocolate?” Alek pushed. “We could go down to the kitchens.”“I’m good,” Max repeated, clearly confused by his brother’s behaviour. “Mum sent an owl. She wants us to meet her in Prague for the assembly.”“Oh.” There was a pause as Alek sat down next to him on the sofa. “Izzy won’t want to go.”“I know,” Max sighed. “I’m supposed to persuade her.”“That’s not your job, Maxsimka,” Alek said quietly.Magnus couldn’t help but agree – if Alek’s mother wanted Izzy to play happy families, she should be apologising, not sending Max as her messenger.“Will you help me talk to her?”“Sure,” agreed Alek, sounding relieved at the opportunity to leave the room. “Shall we go ask Jessamine to wake her up?“Can I use your toilet first?”Magnus’ stomach dropped at the same time Alek stammered out “not really.”“Why not?”Magnus could practically feel the anxiety rolling off Alek as he struggled for a response.“You just can’t, okay?”“What is up with you today?” Max asked as he got to his feet.“Nothing,” Alek insisted.Magnus held his breath. If Max moved a fraction to his left, as he’d have to do to get to the bathroom, he'd see him – and Magnus couldn’t really pretend there was nothing untoward about him being in Alek’s room.
Not after he’d spent the past five minutes crouched behind a chair.“Okay... then why can’t I go to loo?”Alek hesitated, then gave a resigned sigh.“Of course you can – I was just... yeah.”Maybe it was because Alek sounded like he’d just been given a death sentence, maybe it was because Magnus was semi-embarrassed he’d hidden in the first place, but the second Max took a step forward, he felt himself shift without conscious thought.“Alek...”“Look, I can explain–““Since when do you have a cat?”Magnus resisted the urge to lash out with his claws as he was hauled into Max’s arms.“...I don’t,” Alek said confusedly. “I didn’t even know he was in here.”Max pressed a kiss into the fur on his head, murmuring “what a pretty kitty,” and Magnus shook his head violently to discourage any further affections.Alek was glancing around the room to see where Magnus could be hiding, and Magnus could almost see the moment he relaxed as he decided he must have made it out.Max handed him over to Alek, which was... a new experience, and then made his way into the ensuite. Alek examined the cat in his arms for a moment, a wrinkle between his eyes, before setting him down on the floor.“Time to go,” he murmured, opening the door, through which Magnus exited in haste.The castle was busy. It was later than Magnus had thought, and the institute’s students were already up and about. He made for the abandoned corridor, but when he arrived there was too much foot traffic to shift back safely.A hiss behind him reminded him that Church existed, and didn’t take kindly to visitors.He whipped around, ears flat against his head, teeth bared, and tail puffed up to show dominance. To his surprise and relief, Church mewled in fear and then dashed up the stairs that led to the teachers’ rooms – it seemed he was all bluster and no bite.Magnus crept into the now unguarded infirmary on all fours, relieved to see it was empty. He’d just sequestered himself in a corner and resumed his human form when there was a flutter of paper behind him.Carstairs had dropped the file he was carrying in the doorway of his office.“It’s not what it looks like, I swear,” Magnus said hastily.“And... what exactly does it look like?”Magnus sighed, wishing he was wearing more than a pair of threadbare sweatpants.“Vulchanova knows.”Carstairs blinked.“...that you’re prowling the halls as a cat?”“That I’m an animagus,” Magnus corrected, lowering his voice. “I’m, uh, not supposed to transform within the castle.”Carstairs gave him a long look.“I take it this is why you were expelled from Hogwarts.”“Among other reasons,” Magnus admitted. He crouched down, picking up the papers before Carstairs could stoop to do so. “Please don’t tell her you saw?”“I’m not sure I have a choice, Magnus.”“It’s not a habit, I swear – I just needed to...”He trailed off, flushing as Carstairs raised an eyebrow.“Yes?”“...escape a compromising position,” he finished miserably.“I see,” said Carstairs, sounding more amused than Magnus had expected. “Might this have something to do with the dose of Witch’s Warning that went missing?”Magnus winced.“You measure that?”“No, but I count my test tubes,” he replied. Magnus handed over the file with an muttered apology, and Carstairs took it with grateful smile. “As long as you’re more careful in the future, I think this can remain between us.”“Seriously?” Magnus asked, before kicking himself. “I mean uh, thanks professor.”Carstairs shrugged.“We were all young once...”As he left the infirmary, Magnus eyes widened.What on earth was that supposed to mean?He spent the rest of the day in the library, hiding out from Alek and any other Ledovskys who might be rattling around. Ms Gray greeted him with a fond smile, but for the most part, left him to himself.Nevertheless, Magnus couldn’t shake Carstairs’ comment from his mind.“What was Carstairs like when he was young?”Ms Gray looked up, a smile on her face.“I’m not sure – I only met him after he joined the Order.”“He was in the Order?”“We all were,” she shrugged. “He was one of Dumbledore’s favourites.”“So he never got into trouble at Hogwarts?”The librarian laughed.“Jem? Gosh no... he was head boy. Will was the one who always...”She trailed of, blinking the tears from her eyes.“I’m sorry,” Magnus said quickly. “I didn’t mean to–”“No, don’t apologise,” she interrupted, with a sad smile. “It’s actually nice to talk about him.”Magnus learned that the mysterious Uilyam Vulchanov’s mother had been mundane, and so, like Simon, he’d been barred from attending the Institute. At Hogwarts, he’d made fast friends with Carstairs, and the two of them had joined the Order together.Ms Gray – immune to muggle-repelling charms but otherwise unaware of her heritage – had wandered into the Leaky Cauldron in search of her brother, when Will gallantly saved her from being hit on by Mundungus Fletcher.“What did you do for the Order?” Magnus asked curiously.“This and that,” she replied. “Mostly research and errands. They tried to train me up, without much success.” Magnus raised an eyebrow and she gave him an amused smile. “The one and only time I held a wand, I nearly blew off Will’s head.”Magnus forced himself to laugh, suddenly feeling sick.What would Ms Gray say if she knew what his first attempt at magic had done?He was further reminded of his past when Vulchanova approached him at dinner and asked him to come to her office later for a quick word.“I gather you’ve met Madame Maxime before?” she asked when he’d sat down.“Only once,” he replied.Between screaming at the top of his lungs when she’d taken out her wand and refusing to speak when Padre Jeremías had explained who she was, he hadn’t made a great first impression.“She’s requested that certain measures to be taken to avoid any mishaps during our visit next term.” Vulchanova paused, looking uncomfortable. “Specifically she’d like to examine your wand before welcoming you into the palace.”“My wand?” Magnus asked, more than a little confused.“I know it seems unfair, but it would be handled with the utmost discretion.”“I don’t understand, what would they be looking for?”The headmistress’ gaze didn’t waver.“To put it plainly, dark magic. It seems Miss Belcourt is claiming she was under your thrall.”Magnus nearly laughed aloud.“That’s bullshit.”“As Minerva assured me, albeit in different words.”Magnus felt his stomach twist at McGonagall’s name. At least her opinion of him hadn’t fallen that low.“And will they be examining Camille’s wand?”“No.”Magnus let out a huff of bitter laughter. Camille was up to her neck in dark magic, but sure, he was the problem.“Do I have a choice?”“It would save a lot of time if you complied,” Vulchanova replied, her face giving nothing away.
He remembered the headmistress’ suspicion of Klara and Janek, and wondered whether she actually agreed with Madame Maxime. His father had been worse than either Valentin or Karkaroff, and while Klara had never met her father, he certainly had.He reluctantly agreed and was dismissed shortly after.That night, before he and Alek went to bed, Magnus suddenly remembered to retrieve his clothes from under the desk.“I was meaning to ask,” said Alek, “how did you get out earlier?”Magnus shrugged, tucking his clothes into the passage.“I got lucky – Max hadn’t come in yet.”He climbed into bed, hoping Alek would accept that.“Do you have a cat?”Balls.“Not that I know of... why?”“There was one in the room this morning, and... well I described him to Izzy, and she says he’s always sleeping on the windowsill opposite the infirmary.”Magnus didn’t really have a good reply for that so he just made what was supposed to be a noise of interest when Alek joined him.“I’m sorry about this morning,” he added hesitantly. “I shouldn’t have let myself sleep that late.”Alek frowned and then realised what he meant.“Oh. Don’t worry about that. I don’t think Max will be knocking again any time soon.”“Why not?” Magnus asked, and Alek scrunched up his face, his cheeks turning pink.“We left the lube out, and he saw it when he went to the toilet. Pretty sure he thinks I was, uh, having some alone time.”Magnus snorted, Alek jabbed him in the ribs, and then they were both erupting in fits of laughter.“I’d say I’m sorry,” gasped Magnus, “but I’m really really not.”“Of course you’re not,” Alek sighed, pulling Magnus against his side. “You’re a bad influence, you know.”“Me? Remind me who started this whole...” he waved his hand “...us.”Alek rolled his eyes, pressing a kiss into Magnus’ hair. Whenever Magnus mentioned the library he turned a rather fetching shade of crimson.As they settled down to sleep, Magnus couldn’t help but turn Alek’s phrasing over in his mind.Madame Maxime thought he was a bad influence too, a threat of corruption to be contained. Alek had no idea why he’d been rejected from Beauxbatons, but if he did, would he agree?His fretting was interrupted by the boy in question.“Sleep as late as you like,” Alek mumbled, half asleep. “I like waking up with you.”The sudden warmth that pooled in Magnus’ chest was enough to quieten his thoughts.
He didn’t even point out that it was a Sunday, and tomorrow they’d be up at the crack of dawn.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The second week of February was just as cold and miserable as Magnus had anticipated. He spent most of it huddled in his tunic and counting down the hours until he could crawl back into Alek’s bed – a strategy that worked reasonably well until Thursday. That morning the seventh years’ Defence Against the Dark Arts class was a theoretical one, and despite MacMillan’s best efforts, she was struggling to keep their attention.“Yes Pangborn, what is it now?” she asked, clearly irritated at the second hand in as many minutes.“I was just wondering if we’ll be covering any more curses,” he asked casually, leaning back in his chair.MacMillan blinked, a line appearing between her brows.“Have you misplaced the syllabus you were given in September?”The Russian shrugged lazily, and MacMillan sighed, summoning a spare from her desk and sending it across the heads of the first row.“If you refer to it, you’ll find–”“Any real curses, I should say.”MacMillan’s looked up as Pangborn cut her off, and the tension in the room racketed up a notch.They were all listening now.“The curses and counter-curses we’re studying are more than sufficient–”“Not for recruitment–”“Will you let me finish my sentence?”MacMillan slammed down her hand on the desk as she stood up and broad smirk spread across Pangborn’s face.“I am aware that many of you will sit entrance examinations for the armed forces next term, as has been true of the last four NEWT classes I have taught. We are covering the curses you will need– what is it Bronowski?”Magnus jumped as she spat out the last sentence, realising Lidia had raised her hand.“Sorry professor, but I’m not sure that’s true.”Magnus’ head snapped towards her, his incredulous expression an echo of MacMillan’s.“Excuse me?”Lidia swallowed nervously, but continued, her gaze flicking toward Alek.“The officers’ academy in Poland ask you to demonstrate an unforgiveable, and they’re not the only ones.”“A request that is optional, is it not?” MacMillan asked pointedly.“But if you refuse, you forfeit the marks,” Lidia replied, her brows furrowed in confusion.“Eryk Janowicz, Stefan Konik, and Ruta Nycz,” the professor listed calmly, “all Polish students of mine who were selected for officer training last year without such a demonstration. Now if you don’t mind...”The head girl looked suitably mollified, but Pangborn wasn’t about to let it drop.“And what if it’s those marks that cost us our place?”MacMillan’s lip curled.“Then I’d say you weren’t a very good candidate.” She drew her head up high, regarding the whole class. “I will not be teaching unforgiveable curses in this classroom, and if you have a problem with that, I suggest you speak to the headmistress.”At that, Pangborn finally backed down, but Magnus had little doubt he’d be taking it up with Vulchanova.The moment they sat down to lunch – and Magnus was warming his hands on a bowl of soup – he shot a sideways glance at Lidia.“What was all that back there? And since when do you agree with Pangborn?”“It was a reasonable request,” she muttered, to Magnus’s scornful disbelief.“What’s going on?” Janek asked, looking between the two of them.“Pangborn wants MacMillan to teach us unforgiveables.”“Ah.”Magnus gave him an incredulous look.“That’s your reaction?”“Someone asks every year,” Janek shrugged. “Pangborn might actually have a chance, though – his parents are on the board of governors.”“But the examiners can’t actually ask you to...” Magnus turned to Alek, eyes wide. “Seriously?”“Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Russia... most of the old Volkhv armies do,” Alek said quietly.Magnus knew deep down he shouldn’t ask questions he didn’t want to know the answer to, and yet, he couldn’t stop himself.“And that’s the army you want to join?”Alek met his eyes unflinchingly.“Yes.”Conversation dwindled after that, and before long Lidia and Alek had left for a meeting with Vulchanova. Magnus sat with Janek in silence for a few minutes before either of them spoke.“You knew Alek was going to enlist, right?”Magnus sighed.“Yeah.”The truth was, Magnus had known, but he hadn’t really thought about what it entailed.Alec was going to join an army – an army that fought in wars, and used lethal force. Magnus couldn’t stop imagining it, and yet at the same time he didn’t want to think about it a second longer. Doing so would expose the simple truth that Alek’s future looked nothing like his.That night, as he lay beside Alek’s sleeping form, he resolved to find out everything he could about Volkhv military tradition.
The next day brought the first rounds of the duelling tournaments. Alek obliterated a fifth year under Starkweather’s watchful eye, while Janek's opponent – a gangly third year – surrendered twenty minutes before their fight was due to start. In the training room upstairs, Lydia had already incapacitated Elena Voronkova without breaking a sweat.Klara was up against Voronkova’s sister next, and Magnus watched with bated breath as they circled each other warily. Despite being a year younger, Katerina was a few inches taller than the diminutive red head, and without doubt more experienced.“Valentin must be disappointed his daughter’s so weak,” Katerina said in a low voice. Klara glowered, but didn’t rise to the bait. “Serves him right for laying with a gryaznokrovka suka–“There was a crack as Klara slapped her, unexpected enough that Katerina didn’t block the blow. Stepping into range proved to be a mistake, though, as Katerina swiftly grabbed Klara’s arm and twisted it behind her back.At this point Katerina only had to stun the Hungarian to win, but she seemed to delight in twisting her arm further, until Magnus was sure it would break and Klara was crying out pain. She kicked out behind her in an attempt to throw her opponent, but Katerina's stance was too solid for that to work.“Pull her in!” Janek yelled from the doorway, and Klara faltered, clearly unaware he was watching.Katerina smirked, whispering something in her ear, and Klara gritted her teeth. Suddenly she drew her elbow tight against the side of her body, turning to face the Russian at the same time, and then grabbed Katerina’s hair at the roots with her free hand.Katerina screeched in pain, dropping the lock to claw at Klara’s hand, but before she could do any real damage Klara had stunned her.“Miss Szoke is the winner,” Safar announced, earning a grateful smile from Klara for the use of her mother’s name. She stepped over Katerina’s unconscious body and went to greet her boyfriend.“I thought you said you couldn’t watch?”“My duel got cancelled,” Janek grinned.Klara narrowed her eyes, but kissed him anyway.Magnus’ own duel was scheduled for that afternoon, but Izzy was to face her opponent before lunch. To Magnus’ alarm, she was slated to fight Poliakoff, one of Pangborn’s former beaters who probably weighed twice what she did.Alek, however, was unconcerned.“She’s got this,” he shrugged as they watched from an archway. The corridors around the courtyard were crowded with spectators – Izzy was the first girl to fight a boy, and everyone wanted to see how she’d fare.“Don’t worry babe,” Poliakoff smirked, “I’ll be real gentle.”Janek sucked air in through his teeth.“Big mistake.”A few minutes later, Izzy was crushing Poliakoff's windpipe beneath the heel of her boots, and Magnus was inclined to agree.Since the number of people who’d entered the competition wasn’t a power of two, some of the initial matches were slated in threes. Magnus hadn’t been thrilled to find out he had two opponents, even less so when he realised they were brothers – Andreas and Gerhardt Kriegsmesser.When Starkweather called the start of the march, Gerhardt kept his wand trained on Magnus as his elder brother walked over to the weapons rack and exchanged his wand for a large single edged sword.“That can’t be allowed,” Magnus muttered, but Starkweather remained relaxed as Andreas swung the sword with a grin.“Let’s see what you’ve got Bane.”Magnus ducked a hex from Gerhardt and then circled to the side, keeping both brothers in his sight as he tried desperately to remember what Alek had taught him about armed combat.First, he needed to even the field. A Stickfast Hex aimed at Gerhardt’s shoes immobilised the lesser threat, and while he was attempting to untie his laces, Magnus paralysed him for good measure. If Andreas was intimidated his younger brother had been taken out so quickly, he didn’t show it.He lunged forward, but Magnus was too fast, staying just out of reach as they circled around the courtyard. The only weapon he’d trained with was bo staff, so he grabbed one from the rack as he was passing by. He realised his mistake the first time he tried to block with it and the sword cut through it like butter, Andreas having imbued it with a Severing Charm just before.He swore under his breath and then hastily transfigured the half of the staff he was still holding into a wooden shield, grateful he hadnt’t unbound his wand. The runes etched on the staff should have transferred, but he kept up a Shield Charm in tandem just in case. Somewhere behind him he was aware of Janek shouting at him to get a sword, but that didn't seem like a great plan – Magnus had never even held a sword before, never mind tried to fight with one.The shield was already buckling, but it had given him time for inspiration to strike. Lowering his wand, he cast the strongest herbivicus he could muster on the weeds beneath Andreas’ feet. The German stumbled as vines wrapped around his ankles and flagstone he was standing on cracked. Within seconds, he was surrounded by an impenetrable ring of hawthorn.“He needs to be incapacitated,” Alek called out as Andreas began hacking away at the bush, growling in frustration.With an exaggerated sigh, Magnus trained his wand on the other half of the bo staff, which was lying on the floor a few feet back. Andreas didn’t notice he was levitating it until the shadow it cast was upon him, at which point he looked up and Magnus promptly dropped it on his head.“Bane proceeds to the next round,” Starkweather announced, to scattered applause and cheers from Magnus’ friends.He looked up and found Izzy and Klara with matching grins on their face. Janek seemed begrudgingly impressed and Alek, dare he say it, looked proud.“Well fought,” Alek said after Magnus had greeted the others, “a little messy but you got the job done.”“Do I get extra points for style?” Magnus teased.“Not in battle,” Alek replied flatly.Magnus rolled his eyes, but he was reminded this wasn't all fun and games. Soon Alek would be training for magical combat, and his opponents wouldn’t stop at paralysing him, or knocking him out.For some reason he couldn’t quite put his finger on, it was Professor Weasley that Magnus sought out for information. A wayward charge loitering outside his office was probably the last thing his guardian wanted to see on a Friday afternoon, but he was greeted with a broad smile all the same.“Hello Magnus, what can I do for you?”Magnus didn’t know if he should feel bad Weasley had assumed he needed something or guilty that his assumption was correct.“What do you know about the Russian military?”“You’re not thinking of enlisting are you?” Weasley asked sharply.“No,” Magnus said hastily, “I didn’t even know I could.”“They’ll take foreign nationals with Starkweather’s recommendation,” Weasley explained with a frown, “but the army’s no place for someone like you.” Magnus raised his eyebrows, and the professor flushed. “I mean– uh, because, Minerva said– you... boys??”“I’m queer?” Magnus asked, trying not to laugh.He hadn’t known McGonagall was even remotely aware of his sex life, but then again, he’d never tried to hide it.“Exactly,” Weasley replied, sounding relieved.“Being bisexual doesn’t mean I can’t fight," he argued, "just ask the Kriegsmessers."“I’m serious, Magnus – it's not safe.”The smirk fell off his face. There was something in Weasley’s tone that implied a little more than ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’“What do you mean?”The professor began shuffling the papers on his desk, looking suddenly tired.“About a year ago, one of the recruits was beaten to death in the dormitories. The inquest ruled it an accident, but there were rumours he had... unconventional tastes.”This time Magnus didn’t poke fun at his wording.“They murdered him?”Weasley looked up with a piercing stare.“Just, promise me you won’t sign up.”Magnus agreed, more than a little shaken.When Alek returned from quidditch practice that evening, Magnus was sitting on the armchair, waiting for him.“Were you ever going to tell me?”Alek looked at him blankly.“Tell you what?”“About the recruit that died?”Alek passed by Magnus to turn on the shower, responding only from the other room.“I hadn’t planned on it, no.”“You didn’t think it was relevant that someone like you – someone like us – was beaten to death?”“I’m nothing like him,” Alek said shortly, “and neither are you.”Magnus scoffed in disbelief.“I have a lot of evidence to the contrary.”There was a pause as Alek stripped himself of his muddy clothes.“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”When he emerged from the shower, Alek finished getting ready for bed in silence, ignoring Magnus’ repeated attempts at conversation. After the third try, Magnus gave up, brushed his teeth, and headed for the closet.“What are you doing?” Alek asked, looking up from the book he was reading.“Going to sleep.”“In the same room as Pangborn?”“Oh so I can’t worry about you, but you’re allowed worry about me?”“I’ll be fine,” Alek insisted, “noone knows I'm gay.”“It took me all of a month to figure it out.”“That's different. You were there being all glittery and... distracting.”Alek gestured in his general direction and Magnus gave him a look.“You can’t flirt your way out of this – I’m serious, Alek.”“So am I,” Alek replied, shutting his book. “The military was always the plan Mags – you know that.”“Aleksandr please,” Magnus said, forcing his voice to be steady. “I need you to be safe.”“I will be, I promise. Now will you come to bed?”Magnus hesitated, but there wasn't much of a choice. Even if the threat of another rude awakening hadn’t been looming over him, he could never refuse Alek.He climbed into bed, rolling over on one side so he was facing away from the other boy. There was a brief pause, and then Alek positioned his body behind him and wrapped an arm around his waist. When Magnus didn't protest, he switched off the lights.“You could change your mind,” Magnus said into the darkness.The breath against his neck paused, and then Alek pulled him a little closer.
“I won’t.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Magnus woke to the entirely delightful sensation of Alek’s stubble scraping against the soft skin of his belly.“Good morning,” was what he wished to say. What came out was closer to “mmmmnnnghhh.”Alek flashed a grin and then dragged his tongue along the curve of Magnus’ hip bone, his intent perfectly clear.Somewhere in a distant part of Magnus’ brain he knew they’d been arguing the night previous, and this wasn’t the best way to deal with it. (Un?)fortunately, he was also a teenaged boy, so instead of paying his brain any heed, he hummed happily and let his eyes fall shut.Alek had always had a talent for giving head – that much was undeniable – but since Magnus had reminded him they could afford to take it slow, he’d taken it to another level. One hand was holding Magnus’ hips still, the other working in tandem with his mouth as he pulled moan after moan from Magnus’ throat.Magnus reached down blindly, tangling his fingers in Alek’s hair and tugged. Alek made a sharp noise in the back of his throat, and Magnus’ hips jerked without conscious thought. Alek had such beautiful hair, but for some reason, he hadn’t played with it much before – it was usually sopping wet, or Alek was pinning his wrists to the bed, or his hands were otherwise engaged...He pulled again, harder, and Alek’s fingers tightened on his hip. Magnus was halfway through a groan of satisfaction when the head boy pulled off sharply.“Alek?”There was an odd choking sound as Alek took a shaky breath. A pit opened up in Magnus’ stomach as he felt around for Alek’s face under the duvet and found his eyelashes wet with tears.“It’s fine, I can finish, I just–““Aleksandr no.”Magnus couldn’t keep the dismay from his voice as he pulled Alek up the bed, hastily tucking himself away. The Russian buried his face in Magnus’ neck, half embarrassed, half something much worse.“I’m sorry... fuck.”He was almost incoherent, wiping tears away with the heel of his hand. Magnus had no idea what had happened, but he had an awful suspicion.“Sweetheart please don’t apologise,” he said gently, “just tell me what’s going on.”He managed to decipher enough of the panicked mumbling to work out that whoever had forced Alek had directed him by pulling his hair, and Magnus, in his bleary half-awake state, had unwittingly done the same. Twice.He was furious. At this asshole, whoever he had been, but mostly at himself, for not reading the signs yet again.When Alek had calmed down a little, his head tucked under Magnus’ chin, Magnus suggested they call for a house elf to ask for breakfast in bed.“What if they say something,” Alek asked nervously.“They’re house elves, darling,” Magnus replied, “they’ve seen worse than two boys sharing a bed.”Alek was clearly unconvinced, but he didn’t stop Magnus from summoning the silver bell atop the mantelpiece.Come late afternoon they were forced out of their refuge by their respective commitments – the infirmary for Magnus, and quidditch for Alek. The head boy still looked shaken, but he was loathe to skip practice as Magnus suggested.“I’ll be fine,” Alek insisted, “besides, I’m the captain – I can’t just not show up.”Magnus let him go, however much he disliked it, unwilling to repeat the argument from the night before. If Alek was hell bent on acting as if he didn’t have feelings, then he couldn’t do much to stop him.The infirmary was quiet when he arrived, and he was wondering if he’d got the wrong time when the professor emerged from a cupboard carrying a cardboard box.“We’re restocking today,” he announced, as Magnus took the box from him. Magnus separated the seal with a flick of his wand, folded back the cardboard, and then raised his eyebrows.“For... what, exactly?”Inside the box was packet after packet of condoms – Wizards Get Wild’s finest. A second and third box contained a sizable supply of Rasputin’s Remedy and the ingredients for a batch of Witch’s Warning.“Valentine’s day,” Carstairs replied matter-of-factly. “Well, Noc Kupały really.”He hid a grin at Magnus’ blank expression, and Magnus elected not to ask any further questions. Together they emptied the first two boxes into the cupboard in Carstairs’ office, but as they reached the ingredients for Witch's Warning, Magnus looked up.“Are we brewing this today?”Carstairs blinked twice.“Sorry?” he asked. Magnus repeated his question but the professor looked no less confused. “Actually, I just need to...”He took a step toward his desk and he knee buckled. Magnus darted forward with his hands sort of hovering in mid air, unsure how he could help. Carstairs caught himself on the desk, leaning heavily for support as he maneuvered himself into his chair.“Do you want...” Magnus’ eyes moved to where the professor’s cane was leaning against the wall, and Carstairs shook his head with a smile.“I’m good for now,” he said, fingers brushing over his wand to remind Magnus he could summon it if he wished. “I didn’t mean to alarm you... I must have overdone it today.”“Fuck, sorry, I didn’t realise–““How could you have?” the professor asked gently. “I didn’t say.”That didn’t make Magnus feel any better.“Can I get you anything, some tea, or...”“It should pass if I rest,” Carstairs reassured him, “but I’ll have to see to that later.”He nodded toward the box of potion ingredients and Magnus bit his lip.“I could brew it now, if you wanted?” he offered tentatively. Carstairs looked unsure, and he added “Penhallow says I’m one of the best she’s taught.”Carstairs’ lips gave a fond twitch.“I don’t need references to know Witch’s Warning is entirely within your capabilities, Magnus, I’m just... not sure that’s how you should be spending your Saturday evening.“Honestly, I don’t mind,’ he insisted. After the morning he’d had, a repetitive task sounded perfect – not mention half his friends were hovering somewhere over Broslyn Plain getting soaked to the skin.With Carstairs’ reluctant agreement, Magnus spent the next few hours adding ingredients to the cauldron in the infirmary office. The professor stayed to chat while he recuperated, but retired upstairs to his rooms before it was done, giving Magnus his blessing to help himself to the biscuit tin.As he was waiting for the nux myristica to bloom, Magnus thought back on what Carstairs had said.He hadn’t directly told Magnus he was in pain, but words weren’t the only way of communicating. Magnus had become all to used to the minute expressions on his face, and the way his eyes faded out of focus if he was standing too long. Granted he wasn’t Carstairs’ keeper – and he couldn’t imagine the professor would have taken kindly to being told to sit down – but couldn’t help thinking it was another thing he’d missed.That morning Alek had been uncomfortable, maybe even in pain. Magnus remembered the noise he had made more clearly now, a sharp grunt he had overlooked at the time. Part of him had even thought Alek was encouraging him.They were still speaking different languages, in more ways than one.When Carstairs didn’t show for dinner, Magnus could see Ms Gray looking around the hall in concern. He let her know the professor was in his rooms, and she gave him a grateful smile before making a plate to take up. Magnus ate quickly, finishing before the quidditch team had even arrived, and was already in bed by the time Alek got back to his room.When Alek opened the door, he patted the bed next to him, and Alek kicked off his shoes with a quiet “hey.”“I’ve been thinking about this morning,” Magnus began.Alek’s shoulders stiffened.“We don’t have talk about–““Actually, we do,” he interrupted gently. Alec reluctantly took a seat. “When we’re together, why do you think I make so much noise?”“You’re a very demonstrative person,” Alek shrugged, “and I know what you like.”“You most certainly do,” Magnus agreed, trying not to smirk, “but that’s not the only reason. When I’m... vocal, you know I’m having fun and I’m on board with whatever we doing.”“O-kay...”Magnus hesitated.He didn’t want to criticise how Aleksandr expressed himself, but at the same time, he never wanted to see him in that state again.“With you, I’m having to guess.”A shutter fell down on Alek’s face, but not before he saw a flash of hurt.“I can’t... I’m not–““I know,” Magnus said quickly, “and I’m not asking you sound like I do, but you could talk to me, squeeze my hand, kiss me... anything really.”“And that’ll help?” Alek asked sceptically.“As long as I’m paying enough attention,” Magnus said, “which, by the way, we should probably skip drunk and sleepy sex until we’ve figured it out.”“Oh,” said Alec woodenly. Before Magnus explain, the head boy was up and changing into his pyjamas.“If you need to be drunk to have sex Aleksandr, then you probably shouldn’t–““It’s not that,” Alek interrupted, shaking his head, “it’s just... sex?”Magnus raised an eyebrow.“...uh yeah, what did you think we’ve been doing?”Two bright spots of colour appeared on Alek’s cheeks.“But we’ve never– you’ve never...”“Oral sex is still sex darling.”Alek climbed into bed, looking no less troubled, and Magnus waited.
“If this is sex, did I... with him?”Alek’s question was almost inaudible, but Magnus knew who he was talking about immediately.“Not in any way that matters,” he said softly, taking Alek’s hand in his.“Right.”Alek softened as Magnus pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, and then turned his head to meet him. As the kiss deepened, Magnus kicked a leg over so he was knelt either side of Alek’s thighs.“I’m gonna try something, okay?”Alek looked nervous as hell, so Magnus just kissed him again at first, smiling when hands came up to rest on his waist.“Is this ‘something’?” Alek murmured.He shook his head with a grin, removing Alek’s t-shirt before pulling off his own.He kissed under the hinge of Alek’s jaw, over his pulse point, and then in the hollow of his collar bone. Each time he got lower Alek’s breath hitched a little.“Okay?”Alek nodded shakily, so he continued making his way down his body, leaving a trail of kisses on his sternum, over a nipple, at the base of his ribs, in the dark hair beneath his belly button. He looked back up and found the Russian looking at him through hooded eyes.Alek lifted his hips enough for Magnus to slide down the sweatpants and part his legs. With a soft smile, Magnus held out his hand, and Alek clasped their fingers together as he returned it.It was Magnus’ turn to take his time, nosing into the crease of Alek’s thigh and biting and licking the soft meat he found against his cheek. Alek let out a surprised gasp when his tongue found the back of his knee and Magnus grinned against his skin.When he finally took him in his mouth, Alek’s grip on his fingers tightened, and Magnus looked up to see he’d screwed his eyes tight shut. Alek swore under his breath and he pulled off to kiss the hand he was holding.“I’m good,” Alek breathed, “please... don’t stop.”Magnus didn’t need telling twice.He set an excruciatingly slow pace, eyes falling shut when Alek’s free hand found it’s way to his hair. The tips of his fingers set shivers down Magnus’ spine as he combed them through his hair, never pulling and always gentle.Alek came with a soft noise that sounded like he’d been punched, and Magnus hummed in appreciation as he swallowed. When he made his way back up to kiss him, Alek looked like he’d just witnessed a revelation.“Verdict?”“Pretty fucking good.”Magnus grinned, settling himself against Alek’s chest and spreading a hand over the dark hair that covered it.“Oh, that reminds me, what the hell is Noc Kupały?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Magnus looked down at the wildflowers and herbs piled on Lidia’s coffee table – periwinkles, winter aconite, blackberries and ferns – and squished down his unease.Noc Kupały was the closest thing Volkhv culture had to Valentine’s day, and a much anticipated date in the Institute’s calendar. Tonight the girls would attend the feast wreathed in flowers, which would later be cast into the lake. The boys’ role was to wade into the shallows and retrieve the wreath of their beloved, to be rewarded with a kiss. As always, there’d be copious amounts of food and their allotted three glasses of sparkling cider.“Worried about Jessamine?”Magnus blinked as Maia’s question brought him back from his thoughts. “A little,” he admitted.He’d been apprehensive when Izzy had invited him to get ready with them, but Lidia had met him at the entrance of the dorm without incident. The problem was, Jessamine knew full well he wasn’t courting the head girl, and if she found him here she might make good on her threats.“You’ll be fine,” Maia reassured him, “today’s her death day so she’ll be in her room all night.”“She has a room?” Magnus asked curiously.From what little he knew, Jessamine had been a refugee in the castle during the second wizarding war, but he’d never thought about where she might have slept.“It’s upstairs, next to the professors’,” Izzy said, wrapping a fern around the wire that would form the basis of her wreath. “I heard that was where she died.”“She was murdered by her fiancé,” Lidia added. “Kind of a tragedy.”Before Magnus could agree, Klara made a short derisive sound.“Don’t feel sorry for her – she got half the castle killed first.”Magnus’ eyebrows shot up. For a minute he was confused as to how the Hungarian knew so much on the subject – she was usually just as clueless as him. Then he remembered Janek’s mother had been a refugee too.“This was after Karkaroff left, and the institute was temporarily shut down,” Izzy explained, in answer to his curiosity. “Uilyam Vulchanov offered safe haven to any ascendants and wizards with mundane blood that he found on his travels.”“As in, Ms Gray’s husband?”Izzy nodded. “He was searching Eastern Europe for Voldemort, following a trail from where that British minister disappeared.”“Bertha Jorkins,” Lidia supplied.“Vulchanova took up residence in the castle to keep them safe,” said Klara, taking over the story, “but Jessamine was a romantic. She snuck out each night to see a boy from Ydrys, unaware he was a member of the alliance. One day she let it slip that Vulchanova was away on business, and that was that.”“It was Nathanael Grushko who slaughtered thirty-odd refugees, not Jessamine,” Lidia pointed out quietly.Klara shrugged, her expression grim. “Love makes people do stupid things.”“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Magnus muttered.Maia snorted, but Lidia gave him a curious look.“Will you be diving for a wreath later, Magnus?”“Nope,” he replied, popping the ‘p’, “I think I’ve swallowed quite enough lake water for one lifetime.”Klara hummed in agreement. She hadn’t been in the lake long on New Year’s Eve, but Magnus gathered it had been pretty unpleasant all the same.“Are you sure?” Lidia pressed, a teasing glint in her eye.Magnus arched an eyebrow. “Are you propositioning me?”There were a few laughs and Lidia turned pink.“Actually, I had someone else in mind.”Magnus’ stomach dropped like a stone. He knew Lidia had feelings for Alek, but he’d somehow forgotten she might act on them. Next to him, Klara was suddenly fascinated by her wreath, and Izzy was watching Lidia with an indecipherable expression.“Have we told you about the bonfire?” Maia asked him, breaking the awkward tension.He shook his head, and then resumed sipping his vodka as Maia explained what would happen after the feast. It was tradition for couples to jump over the fire hand in hand – those who managed it without breaking their hold were destined to stay together.Unfortunately, no one had told Klara about this last year, so when a newly-enamoured Janek suggested they jump a two foot tall bonfire, she thought he was stark raving mad.“He was moping around for days,” Izzy giggled and Klara threw up her hands.“How was I supposed to know it meant something!?”“Hey, at least you had someone to ask you,” Izzy drawled.Magnus made a note to ask her how things were going with Simon.Suddenly there was a rap at the door. Izzy sat up, suddenly alert. “Are we expecting someone?”Lidia shook her head silently, before calling out. “Who is it?”Magnus’ eyes flew wide as he recognised Voronkova’s voice.“Hurry up, we’re in need of supplies!”There was a chorus of giggles, and Lidia rolled her eyes, getting to her feet. “You better go upstairs,” she said in a low voice to Magnus. He obliged as quietly as he could.Lidia’s bedroom was more or less how he remembered it, with the exception of the muddy quidditch clothes, which were absent this time. On her tartan blanket was a letter that she must have opened just before they arrived.Below him, he could hear an increasingly irritated Lidia explaining to Voronkova and her cronies that condoms were available in the communal bathroom, as they had been since the start of term. Of course, Voronkova already knew that, but she’d never pass up an opportunity to let everyone know she was having sex.Magnus’ eye caught on the letter again, and he paused. He knew he shouldn’t read a private letter, but it was signed with an ‘I love you,’ and he was pretty sure Lidia’s parents wouldn’t write her in English.He skimmed the bits he could see without picking it up, curiosity growing with each phrase – ‘talk to me Lids, I miss you,’ ‘I don’t understand where I went wrong,’ and ‘whatever happened to you and me against the world?’Whoever ‘John’ was, he was head over heels in love with Lidia, and having a miserable time of it.“Magnus? They’re gone.”Magnus dragged his gaze away from the letter, suddenly guilty as Lidia reached the top of the stairs. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to–”“We should get going,” Lidia said, her face devoid of emotion. Magnus followed her downstairs in silence.By the fireplace, Izzy was helping pin a wreath of winter aconite into Klara’s hair – yellow to match sundress she was wearing despite the chill. Izzy's ferns were already in her hair, perfectly complimenting her jade green skirt and lace camisole.For once, Lidia had foregone her customary dress uniform, opting instead for a maxi dress in pale cream chiffon. With her hair braided in a crown beneath a smatter of periwinkles, she looked almost ethereal.“Feeling jealous?”Magnus looked up at Maia, a rebuttal on his tongue before realising that probably wasn’t what she meant. Like the others, she wore flowers in her hair, but they weren’t twisted into a wreath – instead, they were dotted in between her braids and secured with pins.Next to the four of them Magnus somehow looked plain, despite his violently multi-coloured shirt.“Maybe,” he replied, “how come the boys don’t get to wear flowers?”“No reason you can’t,” Maia remarked. Magnus picked a few of the leftover flowers up of the coffee table, absentmindedly pairing the colours.“We’re already late,” Lidia said, when she saw what he was doing.“It’ll only take a second,” Maia argued.“Fine, but hurry up or we won’t get seats together.”Maia bit her lip, concentrating as she affixed a cluster of flowers to the side of Magnus’ pompadour. He inspected it in the mirror and then tapped his wand to add the final touch - tiny streaks of dye that picked up the colours of the flowers and carried them up into his hair.“Nice,” Maia murmured, and he gave her a grin. Lidia opened the door pointedly and marshalled them out the room, still refusing to meet Magnus’ eye.When they got to the dining room, Magnus could scarcely believe his eyes. Emerging somewhere under their feet and running down a stone channel in the centre of the hall was a river. The professor’s table, which usually spanned the width of the hall, had been replaced with two circular tables either side.Where the water reached the back wall, which usually housed a stained glass window, the hall opened up to the star-filled night sky. It was less of an archway, and more as if the wall had simply fallen away between one brick and the next. The room would have been freezing – or at least more so than usual – if weren’t for the braziers set between the tables, which were burning bright with sweet smelling herbs.The girls disappeared with a chorus of goodbyes, and for the first time Magnus realised the seating was split not by age, as it had been at the feasts so far, but by gender. The right side of the hall was a kaleidoscope of colours, every girl above the age of fourteen bedecked with flowers. The left was a sea of red tunics.He saw Janek and Bat in the back corner and made his way toward them, swallowing down his nerves. Behind them, Alek and Max were locked in conversation with Professor Ledovsky, who seemed to be in one of his moods.Magnus took a seat next to Janek and across from Bat, giving the two of them an quick smile. Neither of them blinked at his paint-splattered shirt and Janek’s face split into a grin when he noticed the flowers.“What did Robyert want?” Janek asked, as Alek and Max came to take their seats. The youngest Ledovsky sat at the end of the table, in clear sight of the professors. Somehow Magnus doubted he’d be able to sneak any sparkling cider.“The usual,” Alek replied wearily, “look after Max, remember to set an example, doesn’t Lidia look pretty tonight...”Magnus hid a smirk at his tone, but Bat gave a small smile.“She does, don’t you think?”Janek and Alek made what could pass for noises of agreement.“I think Magnus looks pretty,” Max piped up.Magnus gave him a warning look as Alek visibly tensed up. He had no doubt the little shit knew what he was doing.The meal passed pleasantly, or at least as pleasantly as it could with Professor Ledovsky watching them like a hawk. At one point, he began loudly complaining about ‘foreign students disrespecting Volkhv traditions,’ which Magnus was almost certain was aimed at the flowers in his hair.He felt a rush of affection when Weasley pointed out there were depictions of Volkhvs of both genders adorned with flowers in paintings, and Carstairs added that as long as Magnus didn’t intend to cast a wreath into the river – which he evidently did not – he couldn’t see what difference it made.“Did you see Maia isn’t wearing a wreath?” Janek asked, having obviously overheard the same conversation that Magnus had.“I think she’s seeing someone back home,” Magnus replied, with an apologetic glance in Bat’s direction. The way Velasquez felt about Maia wasn’t exactly a secret.“I know,” Bat said quietly, “she mentioned it last week.” He didn’t seem too cut up about it, but Janek gave him a sympathetic look all the same.“Speaking of boys back home, has Lidia ever mentioned someone called ‘John' to you guys?” Magnus had attempted to sound nonchalant, but he was two glasses of cider in, and from Alek’s piercing stare, he hadn’t quite pulled it off.“I don’t think so,” Janek answered, “Alek?”The head boy reluctantly nodded. “That’s her ex.”“Lidia has an ex?” Bat sounded almost as surprised as Magnus was, which was saying something. This was the first time Alek had given any indication of knowing about Lidia's love life.“How recent an ex?” Janek asked.“They broke up over the summer,” Alek replied. “I’m not sure why.”For some reason, Magnus couldn’t shake the feeling he was lying. From the look on Max’s face, he wasn’t alone in his suspicion.Once dessert had been served, there was movement on the other side of the hall as girls lined up to throw their flowers into the river. Some giggled, some were serious, and some clearly going through the motions, but without exception they whispered a few words into the wreath before letting it drop.“Is it a spell?” Magnus asked curiously.“Of sorts,” Bat replied. “The wreath can only be found by whoever they name.”Magnus raised his eyebrows. That seemed high stakes, though he supposed it explained why on the staff table opposite, a tipsy Ms Gray was offering up her own wreath for MacMillan to cast in the river. He couldn’t imagine the librarian would do so if there was even the remotest chance a student would pick it out of the lake.To his amusement, Weasley was watching the exchange a little too closely to keep track of the story Carstairs was telling him.“Look,” Bat murmured, as Izzy, Klara and Lidia stepped up to stone channel.Izzy’s invocation was undecipherable – Magnus half wondered if she’d said gibberish – but Klara very obviously looked for Janek before she spoke. Lidia was perfectly poised, and she made no attempt to hide the name that passed her lips.On the other side of the table, Bat clapped Alek on the shoulder in congratulations. Magnus dragged his eyes away and drained the last of his cider.It was going to be a long night.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Outside the castle, the river ran past the dock and then out onto the pebbled beach, where a bonfire that was already burning bright. Magnus and Maia sat side by side, warming themselves next to the flames as the festivities continued around them.Janek had been one of the first in the lake, emerging minutes later with the wreath of sun-yellow aconite Klara had worn earlier. As they watched, he held it out to her, and she accepted it with a soft kiss.Magnus should be happy for her – he was – but all he could think about is that it’d be Lidia’s turn soon. He looked away from where Alek was unfastening the clips of his tunic, swallowing around the lump in his throat.“Are the wreaths always claimed?”Maia shook her head. “Not always. Whoever's invoked has to go into the lake, for one, and even then, they might not feel the same way.”Magnus’ eyes slid over to where Ms Gray was sitting on the wall of the dock, laughing at something Carstairs had said. He wondered who she’d have dedicated her wreath to if she hadn't given it to MacMillan. He wondered if Carstairs would have gone looking for it.There was a cheer from down by the lake as Alek waded into the water, having apparently spotted Lidia’s periwinkles.“He’s got company,” Maia remarked, as a handful of seventh formers followed suit.“Hope springs eternal," Magnus replied.Maia gave a wry smile. Velasquez had headed to bed after the meal, claiming he was tired. Magnus hadn’t wanted to voice his doubts aloud, but he knew Maia was thinking the same thing.A ripple ran threw the crowd as Alek raised the wreath up above him, his long legs making quick work of the distance back to shore. As he strode out of the lake, his shirt plastered again his skin, he looked for all the world like Mr Darcy emerging from the fountain.The crowd parted, clearing the way to Lidia, who was waiting not far away. Alek handed her the wreath and bent down to whisper something in her ear. Her face softened, and she rose up on the balls of her feet, brushing her lips feather-light against his cheek.Magnus dragged his gaze away, acid rising in his throat, and Maia shot him a sideways glance.“Too much cider,” he muttered, hoping she’d buy the lie.He wasn’t anywhere near drunk enough for this.Suddenly there was a shriek from somewhere to their left, as Pangborn pulled an squirming Voronkova against him.“You’re soaking wet Anson!” she protested.“Don’t pretend you don’t like it,” he leered, before sticking his tongue down her throat.Magnus pulled a face, and Maia gave a dry laugh.“If you think that’s bad...”Magnus arched an eyebrow and looked around.In the flickering shadows of the fire, couples were pressed against trees, laying on the ground, and – in the case of a certain redhead and her beloved boyfriend – enthusiastically making out on the swing seat by Luke’s cabin.Apparently Noc Kupały was the one night of the year when the Volkhv traditions of modesty and virtue were thrown wholesale out the window, which explained why Carstairs had been so keen to stock up.When the fire had died down a little, couples old and new lined up to jump over the flames. Klara and Janek seemed... otherwise preoccupied, but Pangborn and Voronkova made it over, as did Fedir and Karina Mäkelä, who’d started dating last weekMagnus was amused to see that the latter managed it without incident, whereas Voronkova had tripped and nearly fallen flat on her face, no thanks to her fiancé.Any lingering smugness he had vanished the moment he saw Alek and Lidia in conversation on the other side of the fire. Lidia was holding Alek’s hand, a smile on her lips as she nodded toward the line of couples.Alek looked up, catching Magnus’ eye, and Magnus felt like the air had been punched from his lungs. Next to him, Maia's eyes were soft with what looked suspiciously like pity.“I should...”He trailed off, getting to his feet and stumbling away from the fire. He didn’t know what to say, how to explain he needed to be anywhere other than watching Alek play the dutiful boyfriend, without giving away more than he should.The path past the owlery was strewn with happy couples, so Magnus picked his way across the river, ignoring Carstairs concerned look as he passed the dock. He ducked through the archway that led to the East side of the castle, tears stinging at his eyes, and came to an abrupt halt as someone said his name.“Magnus, is that you?”MacMillan was sitting on the bench overlooking the east gate, with a decidedly worse-for-wear Weasley resting his head on her lap.Magnus’ gaze lingered on where her fingers were entwined in russet red curls, and she flushed a little.“Are you alright?” Weasley asked, pushing his glasses up his nose so he could see him better, but not bothering to sit up. Whereas MacMillan was sober – with good reason, Magnus knew – Weasley was decidedly not.Had he been less of a wreck, Magnus might have cracked any one of a dozen jokes that came to mind. Instead, he mumbled “I’m fine,” and headed straight into the castle. If the look on MacMillan’s face was anything to go by, he’d been far from convincing.The castle was quiet as he made his way to the abandoned corridor, with the majority of students still outside enjoying the festivities. Will let him in with a wistful remark about ‘young love,’ which Magnus pointedly ignored.It was almost an hour later that Alek returned to the room, smelling of smoke and cider and thankfully alone. Magnus had spent it alternately pacing around the room, staring blankly at a single page of the book he was reading, and squashing down unwelcome visions of what the head boy might be doing at that very moment.Alek took one look at his face and sighed, shrugging off his tunic. His shirt and trousers had been dried, either by magic or the bonfire.“Did you kiss her?” Magnus asked, his voice smaller than he’d intended.“No,” Alek replied. “She kissed me on the cheek, that’s all.”“But you jumped over the fire with her?”“Yes.”Magnus stood up from where he’d been sitting on the sofa, hoping he could hide his hurt by looking out the window. Alek sighed again.“Mags... it didn’t mean anything.”“Does she know that?”Alek didn’t answer, instead reaching out Magnus’ forearm and tugging it so he’d turn around.“I’m sorry, okay?”Magnus didn’t point out it was Lidia that Alek should be apologising to. He didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that Alek was apologising in the first place, or have the conversation about what for.They weren’t in a relationship. Alek hadn’t cheated on him. Magnus had no right to be upset, and yet he could feel the jealousy coursing through his veins.Without warning he cupped his hands behind Alek’s neck and pulled him into a biting kiss. Alek took a split second to respond, and then he was kissing him back just as a hard and his arms were tight around Magnus’ waist.The kiss was all teeth and tongue, and at any other time Magnus might have tried to slow it down. Instead he clung possessively over Alek’s shoulders and wrapped his legs around his waist when the head boy picked him up.Some small, weak part of him ached at being lifted into Alek’s arms and held tightly, as if that meant Alek wanted Magnus to be his and much as Magnus did. A more cynical part reminded him that this was what he could give Alek that Lidia couldn’t.Alek laid him down on the furs, not breaking the kiss as he unbuttoned Magnus’ shirt and Magnus began working at the buttons of his trousers. Somewhere in the back of Magnus’ mind he knew drunk sex was supposed to be on hold, but he needed this, and Alek seemed more than willing.When they were both laid bare, Alek’s fingers digging into his hips, Magnus rolled them so he was on top. He stretched his hand behind him toward the open bathroom door, and there was a soft thud as the tub of Rasputin’s Remedy hit his palm.Alek looked up, eyes darkening with lust as he realised what it was. “Fuck yes, please.”Magnus kissed him again, hard and messy, and unscrewed the tub behind Alek’s head. Alek coated his fingers and then wrapped his hand around Magnus’ length. Magnus did the same, but his hand bypassed Alek's erection, moving lower instead.The hand working Magnus over came to a halt as Magnus pressed a finger inside and Alek's breath hitched.“You good?” he asked, murmuring against Alek’s lips.Alek nodded, squeezing his eyes shut as he resumed jerking Magnus off.Magnus added a second finger, adjusting the angle, and Alek’s body convulsed as he brushed the bundle of nerves he’d been searching for.“What the fuck is that?” Alek asked desperately as he arched his back and writhed against the pillow.“That would be the prostate, darling,” Magnus replied.He pressed down, rubbing the pads of his fingers in a circle, and Alek’s mouth fell open in slack-jawed bliss. He looked so goddamned beautiful like this, and Magnus had an overwhelming desire to lay claim to his alabaster skin and mark him as his own.He sucked a trail of kisses under Alek’s jaw, and then nipped at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. A sharp noise somewhere between a yelp and a moan left Alek’s lips, and it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever heard.Magnus redoubled his efforts, fingers incessantly moving as he switched between worrying the skin with his teeth and soothing it with his tongue. Alek was letting out a steady stream of whispered curses now, his hand erratic as he haphazardly picked up speed.“Mags, I’m–”Magnus sealed his lips over the mark he’d made, sucking hard, and Alek broke off, shuddering through his release. All Magnus had to do was thrust up once or twice into the heat of Alek’s hand and he was following him over the edge.They collapsed in a heap and lay there in silence until the sticky mess between them demanded that at least one of them move. Magnus volunteered, and felt a rush of smug satisfaction when he returned with a washcloth and saw the livid purple bruise on Alek’s neck.Alek was his, and he’d be dammed if Lidia didn’t know.He had a suspicion Alek wouldn’t be best pleased with his handiwork, but that was a problem for sober Magnus – right now, all he wanted to do was curl his body around Alek’s, bury his nose in the scent of soap and smoke, and sleep for a solid twelve hours.Naturally, come Monday morning, Magnus was feeling markedly less smug. What had seemed like a brilliant idea after three glasses of cider was... less so in the cold light of day.Alek had hidden the mark with a scarf all weekend, but his school uniform wouldn’t cover it. He’d begged Magnus to lessen the bruise with magic, or at least help him cover it with makeup, but Magnus was stumped on both fronts – he wasn’t sure how to speed up healing without one of Carstairs’ salves, and his makeup was simply the wrong shade.As Magnus pointed out, Alek could have gone to the infirmary for help, or borrowed some concealer from Izzy, but Alek was entirely unwilling to answer any questions that might arise. Which is how he’d wound up in transfiguration on Monday morning with the scarf wrapped tightly round his neck, hoping for once Vulchanova would let it slide.“Scarf off Ledovsky,” she said as she swept into the room.”Alek’s face paled. “But professor, I–”“Take it off Ledovsky, and don’t make me ask twice.”He reluctantly unwound the scarf, revealing the purple mark, and there was a ripple of laughter as someone wolf whistled.“Didn’t know you had it in you, Bronowski,” whispered Lidia’s desk mate, nudging her in the ribs.Magnus should’ve been relieved, really, at such a tidy explanation, but instead he felt a spike of fear. There was one person other than he and Alek that knew Lidia hadn’t given him that hickey, and that was Lidia herself.She didn’t deny it, much to Magnus’ relief, but her eyes lingered on the bruise and a wrinkle appeared between her brows. As Vulchanova called for quiet, she ducked her head, eyes downcast, and Magnus felt a rush of shame.Whatever his frustrations with Lidia, he hadn't meant to hurt him.
“Are you happy now?” Alek muttered behind him, just loud enough for Magnus to hear.Magnus didn’t reply.He wasn't proud of it, but part of him was.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Alek’s not fucking around,” Klara said under her breath as the head boy knelt on top of his opponent’s chest, which audibly creaked. There was a flash of light, and the fifth year beneath him slumped into unconsciousness as the onlookers applauded.The second round of the duelling tournament was in full swing, and Oliver Nott might have actually stood a chance were Alek not in a spectacularly bad mood.“Don't suppose you know what happened between him and Lidia?” Klara asked, shooting Magnus a sideways glance.“No idea,” he lied, not very convincingly.In the intervening days since Noc Kupały, the purple bruise had faded from Alek’s neck, but it was still the subject on everyone’s lips. Although most had initially assumed it was Lidia’s handiwork, that did rather beg the question why she and Alek had been avoiding each other like the plague.Rumours were rife – Magnus had heard at least two separate sixth years claim Alek had cheated on Lidia with them – and their friendship group was as confused as everyone else. Before Klara could quiz him on his feelings for Alek (which she was unfortunately well aware of), they were joined by an unnervingly chipper Izzy.“Ready for your fight?” she asked Klara, who pulled a face in reply. While Izzy had already bested her second opponent earlier that morning, Klara was shortly due to face Karina Mäkelä.“You’ll be fine,” Magnus reassured her. “You beat Katerina didn’t you?”“Only because she was showboating,” Klara replied. “Karina’s smart enough to stay focused, and I’m a terrible witch.”“That’s not true,” Izzy objected. “Some of your charms are better than mine, and Penhallow says you’re a natural.”Klara scoffed. “Right, ‘cos a passable invigoration draught is gonna be a whole lot of use.”“Potions might be against the rules, but charms aren’t,” Magnus pointed out. When Klara frowned, he elaborated – “deafen her with caterwauling, force her to dance the tarantella, hell, beam sunlight straight into her eyes–”“And then?” Klara asked pointedly. “None of that counts as incapacitation.”Magnus shrugged. “Roundhouse kick to the head?”Klara let our a surprised giggle, and Izzy shot Magnus a grateful look as they left for the training room.He allowed himself the briefest look at Alek, who was in conversation with Bat on the other side of the room, and then braced himself for Starkweather’s call.“Magnus Bane versus Theodore Yaxley!”He took his position in the centre of the courtyard as Lidia and Maia made their way through the crowd to join Alek and Bat. (Janek was upstairs supporting Klara, even though she’d asked him not to). Alek greeted Lidia with a tentative smile, and she said something Magnus couldn’t make out.He forced himself to look away, knowing he couldn’t waste his energy worrying about Lidia. Whatever conversation she and Alek had had – Alek refused to tell him the details – things seemed to be at least cordial, if not resolved.Starkweather signalled the start of the duel, and Magnus circled his opponent warily. He was pretty confident in his abilities, but he knew he had to avoid close quarters – Yaxley was built like a tree trunk, and had the brute strength to show for it.Yaxley lunged for him and Magnus dodged out the way, firing off a few hexes for good measure. Unfortunately, while Yaxley could barely string a sentence together, he seemed to have a functioning nonverbal shield.“What’s the matter Bane, scared?”Pangborn’s voice came from behind him, and Magnus couldn’t resist throwing an arch look over his shoulder.“Of what?”He was ready for Yaxley’s next approach, another clumsy lunge that he could dodge in his sleep. Yet when he moved to dart out the way, his shoes seemed to stick, and he stumbled forward, clipping the sixth formers shoulder. He regained his footing quickly, but some of the crowd cheered at the contact and shouted out their encouragement to Yaxley.It didn’t make sense to Magnus that he’d suddenly tripped over his own feet until he saw Pangborn’s wand was still bound to his wrist from his previous duel. They’d been close enough that a sticking charm might have gone unnoticed, as long as it was subtle.Pangborn saw him looking and smirked, sending a single spark skittering toward the flagstones at his feet. Starkweather didn’t seem to notice, but the message was clear – this was very much not a fair fight.From there, things only went downhill. It was impossible for Magnus to keep his attention on Yaxley when he knew Pangborn might intervene at any given time. Yaxley, on the other hand, had smelled blood in the water and was attacking at every opportunity. While Magnus was more than capable of holding him off, he knew he only had to slip once.Pangborn’s wand sparked in his peripheral vision, and Magnus’ head snapped in that direction, his mouth opening to call it to Starkweather's attention. Before he could, he was hit by a jet of ice cold water from Yaxley’s wand.“Seriously?”Pangborn let out a loud guffaw, and Magnus gritted his jaw, bringing a hand up to wipe the water from his eyes. He didn’t see Yaxley charging until it was too late.There was a crack as he hit the ground and the air was forced out of his lungs. Before he could even register what had happened, Yaxley was pulling him into a head lock, his left arm cutting off Magnus’ air supply and holding him against his chest.Bat called out for Magnus to stun him, but the few spells he cast were easily blocked. Then Yaxley was directing his free arm to buffet water at his face and all rational thought flew out the window.He could hear the crowd clamouring, and someone – Alek maybe – arguing with Starkweather to call the match. Pangborn yelled at Yaxley to drown him, and for an awful moment, Magnus thought he might.He managed to roll them over, but Yaxley’s arm was still around his throat, and if anything, it was harder to breath with the sixth former’s weight crushing him from above. He struggled as long as he could, and then forced himself to go limp.There was scattered applause from the crowd, and Yaxley’s arm relaxed as Pangborn cheered in victory. Without warning Magnus twisted, pointing his wand over his shoulder and cast the strongest everte he could manage.There was a brilliant flash as Yaxley was thrown backwards into the air, hitting a column with a sickening crunch. Magnus stunned him for good measure and then rolled onto his side, still coughing up water.“...and Bane proceeds to the next round,” Starkweather announced, as confusion rippled through the crowd. Magnus could swear the professor sounded almost disappointed.Suddenly Alek was by his side, holding out a warm hand and helping him to his feet.“Are you alright?” he asked quietly.Magnus nodded breathlessly. “Pangborn–”“I know.”Alek’s face was drawn in anger, but even in his exhaustion, Magnus knew something didn’t add up. If Alek knew Pangborn had been interfering, why hadn’t he said something to Starkweather?Behind him, Carstairs was seeing to Yaxley, who was still very much unconscious. Starkweather called a break, and the rest of their friends crowded around.“Nice work Magnus,” Maia said, squeezing his arm.“Took you long enough,” Bat added with a grin. When Magnus gave him a look, he shrugged. “You realise you could have stunned him earlier, right? He wouldn’t have been able to block you and keep up the water at the same time.”“Easy enough for you to say,” Alek muttered, scowling in Bat's direction.“I’m just saying.”Alek visibly bristled, and Magnus put a hand on his forearm, as if to hold him back. The head boy held his tongue, though he didn’t look very happy about it.With a rush of guilt, Magnus realised Lidia was watching them, her gaze lingering on where his hand was resting on Alek’s arm.“I’m gonna go shower,” he announced, heading towards the grand staircase.It wasn’t a surprise when he heard Lidia’s footsteps behind him.“You could have told me, you know.”One look at Lidia’s face told him she’d put two and two together. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he muttered.“Magnus, I’m not an idiot. I know you and Alek are close, and it’s pretty obvious you have feelings for him.”Magnus could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. It seemed half the school had cottoned onto his supposed hopeless crush, and he wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that.He glanced around them, wary they were in earshot of other students, and then set off down the passage to the east gate. Lidia followed in tense silence.“I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” he muttered, when they had left the castle.“It is if they’re requited,” Lidia replied.“Well they’re not, so–”She let out a humourless laugh. “You didn’t see his face when Yaxley was choking you... let’s just say if he wasn’t already in the infirmary, Alek would put him there.”Magnus dropped his eyes, trying to quash the warm feeling in his chest, and Lidia pursed her lips.“Besides, you and I both know he wasn’t with me on Noc Kupały.”She had him there.“I tried to get him to tell you,” Magnus muttered.To his surprise, Lidia sighed. “I probably should have known. Most guys are falling over themselves to get you in bed, and Alek was...”She trailed off and Magnus bit his lip, having a sudden vivid flashback to the library. Lidia raised her eyebrows, and he flushed again.“Well. Maybe I don’t know him that well.” Lidia’s voice had a hint of wry amusement, but her eyes were sad as she went to sit down.“I’m sorry,” Magnus said, joining her on the bench. “I’m sure if Alek wasn’t–”“Gay?”“...any guy would be lucky to have you.”“If you say so,” Lidia muttered.“I know a certain American who’d agree,” Magnus said. Lidia gave him a look, but he couldn’t resist asking. “Why’d you guys break up anyway?”She chewed her lip, but answered, much to Magnus’ surprise. “John’s a friend of my cousins, and I’ve been in love with him as long as I can remember. I think he loved me too, until I stopped replying to his letters.”It didn’t escape Magnus’ notice that her wording implied she was still in love with him. “How come?”“I don’t know,” Lidia sighed. “He graduated last year, and signed up for the foreign legion,” she continued, naming the French wizarding army that accepted recruits worldwide. “When he told me he couldn’t wait to visit me, and to be together without a chaperone, I panicked.”“You didn’t want him to?”“No, I did, but–” she cut herself off, shrugging. “Alek was never like the other guys. We could go to Ydrys together, and he wasn’t trying to sneak off to a dark corner or cop a feel. John was... more enthusiastic.”Magnus frowned. “If he was trying to do stuff you weren’t ready for, then–”“It’s not that,” Lidia interrupted, shaking her head. “He always said he didn’t mind waiting, and I know he meant it. I just don’t think he knew he’d be waiting forever.”She lowered her eyes, and Magnus sat back, puzzled. “You mean, you don’t ever want to have sex?”She shook her head miserably. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”“There isn’t anything wrong with you, Lydia. I think you might be asexual.”
Lidia gave him a confused look. “What’s that?”“Have you been attracted to someone – sexually, not just romantically – ever?”She shook her head slightly. “I don’t think so.”“Well, some people aren’t, because they’re asexual.”“Is there a cure?”He shook his head quickly, his heart aching. “No, that’s not– there’s nothing to cure.”Lidia gave him a sceptical look, but Magnus didn’t back down. “You know there are mundanes who take vows of chastity for their gods? I mean sure, some of them are gay, but–”“Not helping,” Lidia muttered.“–the point is, never having sex is more normal than you think.”“But they still want to have sex, don’t they? That’s why vows mean something.”“Not always,” Magnus replied, but he could tell she didn’t believe him. “Look, I’m probably not explaining it right, but there’s a book I could lend you if you want?”He had one in his trunk from last year, when he’d been helping Raphael had been coming to terms with his own identity. Lidia nodded fractionally, and he gave her a tentative smile.A gust of wind reminded him he was still in wet clothes, but something was bothering him.“When Alek didn’t try anything...”Lidia’s voice came out smaller and quieter than Magnus had ever heard. “I thought he was like me.”“He’s not,” he said awkwardly, and Lidia let out a huff of laughter.“Yeah, I figured.” She lowered her eyes again. “Don’t say anything to the others?”“I won’t,” Magnus promised, “and–”“I won’t say anything about Alek,” she said with a wry smile.“Thanks.” He hesitated, before adding, “you should tell John, though.”“That I’m a freak? No thanks.”“You’re not a freak,” Magnus said firmly, “and I think he deserves some answers.”Lidia flushed again, and Magnus gave her shoulder a light squeeze before heading back into the castle. He couldn’t guarantee that John would understand asexuality, but he had a feeling that – for Lidia – he’d be willing to try.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
He wrapped his freezing fingers around the hot chocolate, his lower lip jutting out.
“Mama, when can we go home?” he asked.
“En español, por favor,” she replied, ruffling his hair.
He tried again, wrapping his tongue around the unfamiliar language, but his mama was only half listening, her eyes fixed on the bridge behind them.
She sucked in a sharp breath, as if something had shocked her, and then the smile fell away from her face.
“Where are we going?” he asked, as she pulled him to his feet.
His mama didn’t reply, her shoes clicking on the concrete as she set off down the esplanade. He looked back at the table, frowning with confusion. Alongside half of his hot chocolate, they’d left his new scarf and his mama’s gloves.
“Where are we going?” he asked again, in Spanish this time, in case it made a difference. It didn’t.
A man was watching them from under a tree, his eyes distant and cold. There was something unsettling about his piercing stare.
The traffic got louder as they reached the bridge, drowning out his questions. When they reached the middle, his mama picked him up and set him on the stone wall.
“Mama?” he asked, beginning to get scared.
She pushed herself up onto the wall, shushing him gently. People were looking now, but nobody stopped to speak to them, or ask what was going on.
He looked back toward the cafe and saw the man under the tree hadn’t moved. His green-gold eyes were fixed and unwavering, still locked on them.
His mama took his hand, and he tried to catch her attention, more than panicked by now. “Mama? I don’t like it up here, can we get down?”
Without a word she leant forward, toppling off the bridge and taking him with her. When they hit the water, it was cold as ice.
Magnus sat bolt upright, breathing hard and covered in sweat. The room was still dark, the winter sun yet to make it’s feeble appearance, and Alek was nowhere to be seen.That wasn’t surprising, if he was honest with himself. Ever since Noc Kupały Alek had been spending as much time as he could down in courtyard and out on the quidditch pitch – anywhere but with Magnus.Magnus didn’t blame him, not really. They still hadn’t cleared the air after what had happened with Lidia, and since Yaxley had half-drowned him, his nightmares were getting out of control.Most people would have run by now.He’d dreamt of that day on the bridge half a dozen times in the past week. For most of them, Alek had been there to wake him – for which Magnus was endlessly grateful – but the dreams were coming closer and closer together, and he could tell the head boy was getting worried.Sometimes he’d ask questions that Magnus invariably refused to answer.He climbed out of bed, pulling on his flamingo slippers, and made his way to the desk. He might not be able to speak to Alek about his nightmares, but Caterina already knew the ugly truth that lurked behind them. She might even know how to stop them – without burning through Carstair’s alihotsy supply.He was finishing up the letter when Alek returned from the courtyard. The head boy blinked in surprise when he saw that Magnus was awake.“You’re up early.”Magnus hummed, not wanting to mention yet another nightmare. “You think I could send this to Cat?” he asked, holding up the scroll.“Sure,” Alek replied, stripping off his shirt. “I can take it down after I shower, if you like?”Part of him wanted to refuse Alek’s offer and insist on sending it himself, but a significantly bigger part was side-tracked by Alek's muscled torso glistening with sweat.“...Magnus?”“Sorry, got distracted,” he replied, flashing a grin. “That would be great – thank you.”At least he’d be saved the freezing cold walk to the owlery. With a flick of his wand, he added a small piece of string to the parchment, to keep it tied shut.A light flush spread across Alek’s cheeks as he kicked off his boots. “You coming?”By the time Magnus’ brain had caught up, the shower was running and the door to the bathroom ajar. He’d be coming alright – however many secrets and half-truths between them, he could still rely on that.Magnus had almost forgotten about his nightmare by the last period before lunch, which was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Weasley was waiting by MacMillan’s desk as they filed in, the grim expression he wore raising the hairs on the back of Magnus’ neck.“Morning everyone,” MacMillian began. “Today's class will be a little different – a demonstration of sorts.”She paused, and Pangborn muttered something under his breath that had his desk mate snorting with laughter.MacMillan eyed them coldly. “In their infinite wisdom, the school board have decided you should know what unforgivable curses look like. Since I am less than inclined to perform them, Professor Weasley has volunteered to do so.”It was then Magnus noticed the three jars on her desk. Each contained a large spider – one for each curse.He swallowed dryly, eying up his guardian. Weasley had fought in the war. He knew that objectively, and yet it hadn’t occurred to Magnus that he might have seen these curses before – used them, suffered them, even.The first curse performed was crucio, and Weasley watched dispassionately as its legs spasmed. He kept it up for what could only have been five seconds or so, though it felt much longer, before lowering his wand. As soon as it was released, the spider fled.“Any questions?”To Magnus' alarm, both Alek and Lidia’s hands shot up, along with a handful of the rest of the class. Weasley answered their questions in a calm, matter-of-fact manner, until he called on Alek.“Is it true that you have to mean it for it to work?”Weasley hesitated, furrowing his brow. “In a way,” he said eventually. “Much like any spell, you have to focus on the desired outcome... that might sound difficult, but cruelty is closer to the surface than you’d think – in my experience at least.”A shiver travelled down Magnus’ spine. He noticed MacMillan watching the exchange with an inscrutable expression.The second demonstration, imperio, was more difficult to watch. Weasley didn’t play it for laughs – have the spider leap into the air, or perform an Irish jig – but he did have it coat its feet with chalk dust and write ‘hello’ in cursive script on the board.The whole thing made Magnus feel sick.Just as before, Lidia’s hand shot up. “Is there any way of telling that the subject is being controlled.”“Not easily,” Weasley replied. “The best we can do is ask ourselves if they’re acting ‘out of character,’ but that’s highly subjective.”“Which is why being under this curse is such a mainstay of criminal defence,” MacMillan added, with a pointed look in Pangborn's direction.Magnus wasn’t really following the conversation.All his life, he’d imagined that an imperio would be accompanied by some sort of sign – a green light, or flat, lifeless eyes. Now that he knew otherwise, everything he'd taken as fact was starting to shift.Alek gave him a questioning look, and Magnus shook his head mutely. He had no idea how to articulate the roiling mass in his gut. In the background, Weasley removed the third spider from the jar.He waved his wand, enunciating clearly. “Avarda Kedavra.” There was a flash of green light, and the spider rolled over, dead.Suddenly Magnus was back in the river, green light streaking the water as his mama’s hands gripped his ankles. He stood up, his chair scraping against the stone, and fled the room, ignoring Alek’s look of concern.He only just made it to the bathrooms before he emptied the contents of his stomach into the nearest toilet bowl. Behind him, someone called his name as another shudder wracked his body.“Here,” MacMillan said quietly, holding out a glass of water. He accepted it with shaking hands, spilling half of it on his tunic. “I told him it was a bad idea.”She leant against the wall opposite, watching as he swilled out his mouth and spat in toilet.“Sorry,” he muttered under his breath.“I’m no stranger to vomit these days,” MacMillan replied with a wry smile.Magnus raised an eyebrow. “Morning sickness?”She inclined her head, and Magnus flushed the toilet. “You should speak to Carstairs – we can order in some valerian root.”“It’s on my list,” MacMillan replied, looking equal parts fond and amused. “Have you considered taking your own advice?”He looked up from where he was washing his hands, suddenly thrown off guard. “This isn't a regular thing, I just–”“I’m not talking about throwing up,” she interrupted gently. “I understand why that lesson would be difficult for you.”“Then why would I need to speak with Carstairs?”“You look tired, Magnus, and we’re getting worried about you.”“I’m fine,” Magnus said, sounding wholly unconvincing, even to himself.MacMillan gave him a look. “It doesn’t have to be Carstairs, or me, or Percy, but I hope there’s someone you can talk to?”Magnus thought about the letter winging its way south. “There is,” he replied, with a smile.There were footsteps in the corridor, and then Alek appeared, Magnus’ book bag over his shoulder. MacMillan gave Magnus a look he didn’t want to investigate too closely.“I’ll leave you to it, shall I? And Magnus – don’t mention anything to Professor Weasley just yet... he still doesn’t know.”“I won’t,” Magnus assured her, and she gave him a warm smile before heading out.“What was that about?” Alek asked, looking confused.“Nothing important,” Magnus replied.Alek frowned, looking like he wanted to ask more, but Magnus didn’t give him an opening. Instead they left the bathroom in silence and headed to an early lunch. They’d just managed to sit down and fill their bowls with soup when the rest of their Defence Against the Dark Arts class arrived.“Hey Bane,” Pangborn called from across the table, “what’s the matter? Scared of a real curse?”Magnus rolled his eyes, deciding silence was as good an answer as any.“Pity they’re off limits for the tournament... or are they?”Magnus’ shoulders stiffened. The duelling tournaments didn’t explicitly forbid unforgiveable curses because their use was already prohibited outside of war – that and the vast majority of students weren’t psychopaths who’d consider torturing their peers a reasonable tactic.“Fuck off Pangborn,” Janek said, sitting down next to Magnus with a glare in the Russian's direction. “Starkweather would have your head if you tried that, and you know it.”Magnus stayed silent, remembering his last fight. Yaxley had nearly drowned him, and Starkweather hadn’t seen fit to intervene then.“It was only a question,” Pangborn replied airily. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll be matched next.”There were only sixteen people left in the boys’ tournament, and Magnus was more than aware he and Pangborn were two of them.He gave the Russian a contemptuous look. “If you’re looking for a chance to get all close and personal, all you had to do was ask.”Janek snorted into his soup and the fifth years sitting opposite them erupted into giggles.Pangborn, predictably, was furious. “You better hope I don’t draw you, pederast, or I’ll make you pay for that.”“Will you now?” Magnus asked coolly, slipping a hand into the pocket where he kept his wand. “Or will you have someone in the audience do it for you?”“Like I’d need to cheat to beat you,” Pangborn sneered.“Yaxley did,” Magnus pointed out, “or were those charms you cast for him just decorative?”Janek gave Magnus a sharp look, which he elected to ignore. It seemed Alek hadn’t shared that tidbit with him.“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Pangborn snapped.Magnus let out a huff of laughter. “That’s odd, because you were definitely there – oh, and by the way, I still won.”“Look gryaznokrova, even if someone did cast a couple of charms from the side – and I’m not saying they did – you have no proof.”“Actually, I do. Alek saw it too.”Magnus’ triumphant grin slipped a little when he looked to Alek, and found the head boy looking faintly nauseous.A smirk spread across Pangborn’s face. “Well, Ledovsky?”There was a tense pause before Alek spoke. “It was difficult to see.”“What the fuck, Aleksandr?”“You heard him,” Pangborn drawled, and Magnus couldn’t understand how he could be so confident, so certain that Alek would cover for him.“Why are you lying?” he asked Alek, genuinely confused.“I’m not.”“Uh guys, what’s going on?” Janek asked, glancing between them. Neither of them answered.Alek’s eyes were wide, begging him to let it drop, but Magnus couldn't stop himself. “I know you saw it too.”“I'm not sure what I saw, it was all so–”“Bullshit.”“Ladies please,” Pangborn said, drawing Lidia’s ire as she sat next to Janek. “Some of us are trying to eat.”He sat down a few seats away, ladling himself a bowl full of soup, and if Vulchanova hadn’t been less than two metres away, Magnus would have flung it in his face.As it was, he turned back to Alek, lowering his voice as he over-enunciated his words. “Why are you lying?”Alek opened his mouth, and then let out a sigh. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”“Fuck you Aleksandr.”There was real venom in his voice – a touch too much judging by the wide eyes of their friends. He pushed the bench back, abandoning his lunch, and stormed out of the hall.Behind him, Pangborn let out a wolf-whistle and Vulchanova called for him to quiet down. Magnus got as far as the passage to the East Gate before Alek caught up with him.“Magnus... Magnus! I’m sorry, alright?”Magnus ignored him, and Alek grabbed his wrist, pulling him into the library.“Please just let me explain–”“Okay,” Magnus interrupted, a fraction too loud. “What the fuck was that? Why do you let him talk to me like that? Why haven’t you ever stood up for me, or Izzy, or Lidia, or any of the people you’re supposed to care about?”Alek stared at him, and Magnus realised abruptly he’d more or less been shouting. He shot Ms Gray an apologetic glance and allowed Alek to pull him further into the shelves.“It’s not that simple,” Alek muttered, when they were in the furthest corner from the library's entrance.“It is actually,” Magnus replied. “Pangborn’s an asshole, and you don’t care enough to do anything about it.”“Of course I care,” Alek said in a furious whisper, “it's just– ...complicated.”Magnus let out a huff of dry laughter. “You know who it’s not complicated for? Lidia. She heard him call Maia a chyorneya once and boom, detention.”“It’s not the same–”“No,” Magnus agreed, “it’s worse – Pangborn’s tried to kill me at least twice. I understood after lake – we weren’t supposed to be in the forest – but in the duel... why didn’t you tell Starkweather?”Alek sighed again, but this time, he didn’t deny that he’d seen it. “I tried to get him to call the match–”“That’s not enough,” Magnus said, shaking his head. “Why didn’t you stop Pangborn?”Alek shut his eyes, letting his head tip forward. “I can’t, okay? You have to trust me.”Magnus looked at him, really looked at him for a second. “And if I don’t?”“Magnus, come on – it’s not like you tell me everything... I don’t even know your name.”“I tell you everything that’s important,” Magnus said, a note of warning in his voice. “My birth name is not.”Alek shook his head, obstinate as always. “You didn’t tell me the nightmares were about your mum.”“You couldn’t have guessed?” Magnus asked incredulously. “I told you I watched her drown.”“You didn't tell me you were in the water with her.”The moment Alek had spoken, he seemed to regret it. It took a second for Magnus to understand why.“You read my letter to Cat,” he said softly, more of a statement than a question.“I had to,” Alek muttered. “You wouldn’t talk to me.”He sounded resentful, almost jealous, and it was so ridiculous Magnus nearly laughed aloud.“She’s my one of my best friends Aleksandr.”“And what am I?”“Right now? Nothing.”