[googlefont=Charmonman:400][googlefont=Open Sans:400]

[attr="class","stephtable"]

[attr="class","imagez"]

[attr="class","title-atha"] And She Never Wanted to Leave

[attr="class","subtitle-atha"] High in the halls of the kings who are gone
Jenny would dance with her ghosts

[attr="class","wordz-atha"] Rumors spread quick in Hogwarts, even when they started outside the halls. It still felt surreal, still felt so--

Athazaz been laughing at a joke Nick had said, though he couldn't even remember it now. He'd heard someone talking about Dima in the distance, and his heart had near-about dropped into his shoes. He'd pulled out of the conversation, adjusted his body to not seem demanding, not tower over the second year he vaguely recognized as he'd seen them around Rurik. Weasley and. . . one of the Ollivander kids, wasn't it? "I'm sorry? He'd asked, keeping his voice level. "Can you--I'm sorry, I'm his friend. . . what happened?"

And they had told him. The murder-suicide, the bodies-- his heart dropped further, and Atha made a quick excuse, gave the kids a quick smile, told them to be there for Rurik, and off he raced to find Dima. They'd studied together, he knew the schedule, he knew he needed to find Dima now. He wasn't quite successful the first five places he'd checked, but he needed to find Dima soon.

it wasn't the same, he knew. But he couldn't let Dima turn out like his grandmother, like Agatha or her sister Argentia. Their father had also killed their mother, and the two never spoke now. Grandma was a shell, silent and fearful, quick to express anxiety and quicker to cringe. She wouldn't forgive him if he didn't run to help, and Athazaz would never forgive himself. He needed to be there, get there-- it was too late, there was nothing he could do, but he could stay with him, be with him, make sure Dima wasn't alone.

"Dima! Dima!" His lungs were bursting, he'd ran over too much of the castle. There weren't many people of their height, and the other boy stuck out, and Atha--

"Dima," he choked out, his voice cracking as he swept forward. "It's me, it's Atha, I'm going to give you a hug now." A beat, a second beat, a third, and there was no true sign of denial, so Athazaz embraced the other boy tightly. "Dima."

[attr="class","tags-atha"]☆ morning of 6/6/2019, Hogwarts
@dima , 330 words ☆

[attr="class","credz1"]❤fai

[newclass=".stephtable"]background-color:#000;width:420px;border:1px #323232;border-style:solid;padding:10px;[/newclass]
[newclass=".imagez"]max-width:120px;max-height:120px;margin-right:240px;margin-top:25px;outline:2px grey double;padding:5px;[/newclass]
[newclass=".title-atha"]width:215px;font-family:Charmonman;border-bottom:5px double #323232;font-size:20px;text-align:center;color:#98ff98;line-height:90%;padding-bottom:5px;margin-top:-110px;margin-left:150px;text-transform:none;[/newclass]
[newclass=".subtitle-atha"]width:175px;height:70px;overflow:auto;margin-top:8px;line-height:100%;padding:5px;text-align:center;font-size:12px;font-family:Open Sans;color:#98ff98;margin-left:150px;padding-bottom:2px;text-transform:uppercase;[/newclass]
[newclass=".wordz-atha"]text-align:justify;font-family:Georgia;font-size:11px;color:#dbdbdb;padding:10px;padding-top:15px;width:400px;letter-spacing:1px;[/newclass]
[newclass=".wordz-atha b"]color:#98ff98;font-size:12px;[/newclass]
[newclass=".tags-atha"]width:400px;font-size:11px;font-family:Georgia;color:white;text-align:center;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:3px;[/newclass]
[newclass=".credz1"]font-family:Oswald;text-align:right;width:420px;font-size:10px;[/newclass]

They danced through the day

And into the night through the snow
that swept through the hall
From winter to summer then winter again
'Til the walls did crumble and fall

He had made it this long without telling a soul. Well, aside from Rurik. He wanted to. By the Gods did he want to. The thought crossed his mind four hundred times a day. A friend could simply look in his direction and he wanted to tell them everything and let himself fall apart. There were so many people he could go to. People who knew his family, people who didn't. People who would let him cry for days if he wanted to. Days. He couldn't though... Not yet. He had been trying to put it off. To pretend none of it had happened, like the fact that he was an orphan now wasn't true and the man at the Ministry didn't exist.

That felt easy. It felt easy and somehow that only made it worse. His father had been gone nearly a year now and he hadn't seen his mum since April. He could go back to thinking she was at home getting ready for Rurik and himself to come home. He could fall into the familiar feeling that he might not see his father again. Not forever, no, but for a while. He had told Rurik and his young brother had done his best to do the same as Dima. There was a certain way to process emotion, and it wasn't to be done here. Not in the halls of Hogwarts where hundreds of others could sit and stare on. He knew that Rurik would struggle more with it than he would. Or he had thought that would be the case...

So far no one had really noticed how distant he had become over the last week. With finals in full swing no one really had the time. Besides, everyone thought he was still mopey about what had happened over spring break; so no one had asked why he hadn't said a word the past few days. He just needed to get through one more exam. One more day. Then he could fall apart. He could tell someone if he wanted. He could lock himself in the bathroom and just lose it completely. Then, tomorrow, he could go home and... 

No. No he supposed he wasn't going to be going home. Not tomorrow, not ever. If he did it would be different. If his brothers made him go collect his things he would know how changed that house would be. He would wonder where it had happened. Or would he even have to? Would there be evidence everywhere? Auror tape on all the doors? Did he even have things anymore or were they all evidence? The letter was. Merlin why hadn't he read the letter? They had given him the chance; why hadn't he read it? Why hadn't he? Why hadn't he-- It felt as though everyone was starting at him. Whispering, even and he wondered if the chaos going on inside him had started pouring out, and then he had heard it.

Have you heard about Dima's parents?

Frozen he stood in the middle of the hallway. Every which way he looked there was a different set of eyes on him. Eyes, eyes, everywhere eyes. He dropped his own, meaning to look down at his own feet and just keep walking. Dima urged himself to pull himself together, to make it through one more exam, one more day and then he saw it. A girl walking past held the newspaper against her books as she shuffled by and he saw it. He should have known it would happen. He should have, but in the whirlwind of his own problems he hadn't for a second thought that it would.

Everyone knew.

It had made the paper. Of course it did. A murder-suicide didn't happen every day. And that meant someone had read it. Someone had told someone, and they had told everyone. The Ravenclaw boy drew in a shaky breath but it hardly felt like he had taken on air. The whispers had taken it all from around him. There was no air, nothing left for him to breathe. He tried again. Short, ragged. Nothing. It felt like nothing and he could feel the fear welling up inside him. The whispers were roaring, weren't they? So loud around him. Calling out to him. Calling his name. Why were they calling his name?

Dima's head snapped up and he saw Atha coming through the crowd. He knew the boy was coming closer but he seemed eons away. The whispers, the roaring, it all started fading into the pounding in his ears. Was that his heart? Couldn't be. It couldn't be going that fast. Wouldn't it kill him if it was going this was? Was he dying right here in this hallway? Another Remnikov for the papers. 

His friends words came to him but they were foreign. He...he couldn't understand him. Why was he nodding? Was it even him nodding? Some subconscious part of him drove his actions while confusion and panic raced through his mind. Still, he hugged the older boy back. "Atha, everyone knows." His voice was shook, mortified. Even Athazaz knew now, it was obvious. Dima felt the shaking that plagued his voice spread to his hands, balled in fists as they were. "Everybody knows what happened. They all know--" He couldn't even bring himself to say what they all knew. He hadn't yet. Not to himself. The only time he had uttered it at all was when he told his youngest brother. 

Athazaz Acanthus Bones | Words: 916

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0