The Hufflepuff boy had had an Early Breakfast and had decided to take a quick amble around the castle before his first class, truth be told he hadn’t even looked at what his first class was. For all he knew it could Transfiguration or Magical Creatures class. He had taken the latter class in vain hopes that he could educate his father in the positives of him having his own owl especially now he was 17 and would be in his final school year come September. Of course his father was used to Owls by now as that’s how Caleb would send correspondence to him.

Assuming that he had Magical Creatures class, Caleb made his way to the second floor to continue on his walk and to have time pass, quickly he hoped. He found himself in one of the many portrait corridors that Hogwarts had. He just assumed to fill in the blank walls the heads of the school just hung random portraits or tapestries everywhere.

The blonde boy was looking up a portrait of some wizard, he didn’t care much about who it was when he heard someone behind him, he looked around and saw a boy who he assumed to be in a year or two below him. “Morning” he said keeping a straight face.

@ezekiel

Ezekiel had been on his way to the library and was just making his way across the second floor when someone spoke to him. The Gryffindor glanced up, having been deep in thought and smiled politely at the boy who had spoken to him. "Good morning." He said, albeit slightly awkward. He made to continue on his way before pulling back and staggering a little as he tried to decide whether to stroke up a conversation with the Hufflepuff.

The polite side of him won and he stopped, to smiled again at him, "I don't believe we've met, I'm Ezekiel. You are?" He asked, holding out a hand for the older boy to shake.

It wasn’t that Caleb didn’t like students from other houses, he just tended to be more trusting of fellow Hufflepuffs and was weary of those from another house until he got to know them that was. When the boy held out his hand, Caleb hesitated for a split second before grasping the boy’s hand, he was going to try and be friendly after all the boy appeared to be so. “I’m Caleb, nice to meet you Ezekiel” the blonde smiled, as he released the Gryffindor’s hand. Now, the Puff was at a loss for words, he rarely initiated conversations. When he and Kiki were together, she did most of the talking, which he was very comfortable with. Now with Ezekiel, he wasn’t sure what to say.

“So, you on your way to class or back to your dorm?” he asked, knowing either option could be true or perhaps the boy was on his way somewhere else. But at least Caleb had made progress in striking up conversation with someone new.

Ezekiel was slightly amused at the fact he could pretty much feel the awkwardness between them. "Nice to meet you Caleb, and I was just heading back to my dorm, I was going to grab some books and meet my sister in the library for a study session. What about you, or are you just wandering?" He asked politely, taking a small step closer to him and looking up at the paintings on the wall in front of them. "Do you know who that is?" He asked curiously, pointing at the Wizard in the fancy looking artwork in front of them. "I don't even know why the school has so many unnamed witches and wizards around the school in portraits. It's rather unusual, when you think about it. Don't you agree?"

Did Ezekiel pick up on how awkward Caleb was feeling? The Hufflepuff hope he didn’t. Merlin! That wasn’t a good way to start the day. Why the heck was he so awkward anyway? Oh right because the other boy wasn’t in his house. Caleb didn’t have anything against Gryffindors, he just didn’t know any. “Oh I was just killing time before class, do you and your sister always study so early in the morning?” the sixth year asked curiously. Caleb looked at painting and considered making a joke that he thought the wizard in the painting looked like the Earl of Sandwich, not he even knew what the Earl even looked like but he deciding against, not wanting to appear lame in front of Ezekiel. “Not really, like everyone else I don’t pay too much attention in History of Magic” he joked. Caleb pondered the other boy’s question. “Umm, yes I agree and really the castle would look awfully empty without the portraits” he said, why did he add that last part?, the Hufflepuff chastised himself, now he did seem lame.

"Sometimes we do, it's like a little ritual. Our internal clocks are set to like eight in the morning. Because our sister always woke us up at this time, well... she'd wake Ruby then they'd both come and wake me." He laughed, shifting his bag a little on his shoulder to stop the slight throb that was starting from the weight staying in one place.

Ezekiel laughed when Caleb said about not paying attention in History of Magic, "It really is the worst subject. I don't understand why any fifth years and up study it. Unless of course they use it to catch up on sleep, homework and assignments." He smirked, thinking back to his first few years where all he would do was doodle in his workbook. There were quite a few obscene ones in there, he remembered as he thought about it a little. "That's a good point." Zeke agreed with a small nod, "Probably colder too." He added on to Caleb's joke.

As Ezekiel spoke about him and his having ritual Caleb picked up he was speaking in a past tense about another sister, with his use of ‘woke’ and ‘she’d’, did something happen to his sister? Merlin! He hoped not. “When I was little my mum made me have rituals too when I first woke up” he said. Though at that age he used to think they were such silly things to do like brushing his teeth but now he would love to travel back in time and spend time with her again.  He really missed his mum, every day he missed her more and more. But Caleb decided not to dwell on that right now.

“Me neither, I don’t think I’ll study it next year, in my final year I’d like to focus on subjects that I actually like and enjoy” he said, reasoning it out in his mind as he spoke. “I usually spend that class making notes for other classes or drawing in a notebook of mine” he spoke honestly. Most of the drawings were of animals or magical creatures since it was another of his favourite classes. “Well….we don’t need the castle getting any more colder than it already is” he chuckled.

"I guess you always do when you're young." Ezekiel replied with a small smile. He let his mind wander to the last morning his two sisters woke him up, Iris had, had a bad dream and she'd woken Ruby up. The three of them then lay in Ezekiel's bed chatting until their parents started to wake up too. How he wished that chat had lasted just a little longer than it had.

"I can agree with that. As soon as I get the chance to drop it, it's gone." Ezekiel said firmly, "It really is pointless. The only excitement was when we discussed the Wizarding Wars." He said, when Caleb said about drawing in that class, "I like to catch up on my other homework in that lesson." He admitted. When Caleb said about the castle getting colder Ezekiel laughed and nodded, "It'd be winter all year around."

The boy nodded his head, he missed those moment with his mother. “ Yeah that’s true, I miss mine” he said, referring to his mum, though he hadn’t meant to divulge that kind of information to Ezekiel. “She passed away when I was in my second year” he sighed, Caleb had stopped crying about it whenever he thought about how she lost her life. He hadn’t told anyone at school anything about his mum save for Kiki a few days ago. Though he wasn’t sure he wanted to keep it all bottled inside either. The loss of his mum had caused a greater distress for his father, however Caleb didn’t want to think about that in his present company.

Caleb smiled as the Gryffindor spoke of dropping History of Magic as soon as he could. Frankly he couldn’t blame Ezekiel for doing that. It was perfectly logical. When the wizarding wars were mentioned, he flinched, not meaning to. But he hated to think of what loss had occurred to the muggle population because of the. “Imagine winter all year around, it would be like those magical schools up north that have thick fur coats for their uniforms” he joked.

Ezekiel was taken aback when Caleb said about missing someone. He had a feeling that Caleb hadn't meant to say that, when Caleb continued on, Zeke gave him a sympathetic smile. "I lose my sister over Easter. I was off school for a few weeks, like a bereavement holiday. Both me and Ruby were off." He told Caleb, if the Hufflepuff was going to admit about losing someone - even if he didn't realise it - Zeke was going to show he understood.


Ezekiel laughed when Caleb said about a school in the North, "Durmstrang?" He confirmed and smirked, "I think thick fur coats should be mandatory." Ezekiel said, putting on a fake Bulgarian accent.