(1939-05-02) Absent Friends
Details for Absent Friends
Summary: Gresham admits to Lucretia that he's missing a certain someone.
Date: 2nd May, 1939
Location: Entry Hall, Hogwarts
Related:
Characters
LucretiaGresham

The marble beginnng of the staircases leading upwards into the castle face the heavy oak doors that lead outside across a flagged stone expanse that could fit an average house. Looking up, one can see the staircases shifting from one landing to the next, on up into the shadows making it difficult to tell just how high the Entrance Hall really is. The torches in the walls do little to pierce the dimness overhead, but cast light on the suits of armor flanking the front doors and the many doors spaced at odd intervals leading to the Great Hall, Slytherin Dungeons, Staff quarters, and even a broom closet.

Perhaps the thing of greatest interest in this entry though, at least to the students, are the four large hourglasses housed in niches on one of the walls opposite the doors. One filled with sapphires, one with emeralds, one with rubies, and the last with topaz, these hourglasses keep track of the all important House points. The gems in the bottom half represent the points earned so far by houses Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.


Lucretia stops on her way through the Entry Hall with a younger Slytherin girl in tow. She takes a moment to look up at the house points counter with a more then happy look on her face. "See that?" she says to her peon. "That's breeding. I don't know why the other houses even bother."

Gresham trudges along the hall.. or glides.. gludges? Something about him seems off, and it's obvious to even the most dense individual. He's the proverbial diamond that's lost its luster.

Lucretia catches the morose looking Gresham from the corner of her eye and shoos the younger girl away with a flick of her hand. She turns to the boy. "Hello, Ollivander. Did you see how much we're beating the lesser houses by?" Yes, she did say that, and no… she's not really paying much heed as yet to her older housemates clearly beaten down mood. Her mouth settled in a natural smile, she glances back up to the counters and adds, "I really don't see them catching us. Not now. Not unless someone does something either heroically magnificent or heroically stupid."

Gresham looks up at the large hourglasses, and nods to Lucretia. "I did indeed see.. It's a good day to be Slytherin.." He finds a spot to hunker down, and does so, his robes fluttering around him like a Dementor's cloak.

Lucretia pulls a bag of bullseye mints from her pocket and helps herself to one before shaking the bag Gresham's way. "What's up? You look like you lost a galleon and found a knut." Smoothing one hand behind her rear to pull her skirt smooth around her legs, she drops to a hunker beside the boy, a sideways glance given him. "Is it your NEWT's?"

Gresham shakes his head. "No. I can handle my NEWTs… It's Esther. I haven't seen her lately."

Lucretia crunches her mint. "Oh. She's around, though just busy. She was helping me with a charms problem yesterday." A quick smile. "I think she's kind of burying herself in her work a little, but you know what she's like; odd hours of sleep and keeping herself to herself. All that stuff with Myrus has turned her into a bit of a hermit."

Gresham ahs, and nods, perking up a little bit. "I see.."

Lucretia chews her lower lip. "She was talking about leaving at the end of this year. I'll miss her."

Gresham inhales, closes his eyes.. and exhales. "I think.. I.. I think I 'like like' her."

Lucretia scrunches her face, her nose wrinkling. "Oh right. I tried that whole 'liking someone' once. It didn't work out and really was just a stupid waste of time." She shifts her mint to the other side of her mouth and blows her cheeks out briefly with an exhale of her breath. "You do know she's dating Shafiq, right?"

The proverbial mirror shatters. Gresh simply nods, his expression becoming rather neutral. "…Yeah. I guess I did."

"Cheer up. You'll live…" Lu fishes in her bag of sweets for an extra large mint and presses it into Gresham's hand. "I have to go. If I see Esther today I'll tell her you were wondering how she was. Or something." The last is added as an afterthought, a small pat to his shoulder given as she pushes herself back up to her feet.

Gresham unwraps the mint and pops it into his mouth. "…Thanks, Lu." He smiles, dusting himself off and glancing around. "Well, I'd best be off.. Studying to do, and all. Take care, Lu."

Lucretia tucks her hair back behind her shoulders. "I'll see you in the common room later." A half-smile with that to the older boy before she turns and heads up the stairs. Knowing Lu, its to the library she's heading.

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