Title: Below the Water's Surface
Prompt: 'Written for the And the Tears Streaming Down Your Face' challenge on HPCF
Warning: Self Harm, Character Death
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is a trademarked brand owned by J.K Rowling and Warner Brothers. Any material used belongs to the aforementioned parties. This material is only used in recreational purposes and I receive no monetary or material rewards from using it. Please don't sue me.
At first glance, Stephen Cornfoot, Wayne Hopkins, and Megan Jones could pass as siblings. They look frighteningly similar, what with their dark hair, pale skin, and gray eyes. Coupled with their close friendship, it's unsurprising that most people think they're related.
However, looks is as far as their similarities go.
Wayne is a dreamer. And poor… but mostly a dreamer. Not just, I-have-to-buy-second-hand-possessions poor, but every-so-often-the-water-gets-shut-off poor. If a person didn't really know him though, they'd have no inkling of Wayne's poverty simply because Wayne is always so cheerful.
Megan is confident. Never will you meet someone so sure of their own assumptions, and the few times she and Ernie Macmillan ever disagree are always explosive. With her hot temper and argumentative nature, the Welsh girl is easily offended, but quick to forgive.
Stephen is unreliable. He has good intentions, and he really does try to do everything he says he will, but more often than not, lofty expectations fall flat. His grades in every single one of his classes tends to fluctuate depending on where his homework got missplaced that week, and how long it takes him to find it and turn it in for reduced credit. The other two soon learn that a task assigned to Stephen is better done by them.
But war... It changes people. It'll leave you hardened and cold, thinking up is down and right is left. And some people can cope with that. They'll search in their hearts for some inner strength and manage to carry on almost like normal. Others though, they can't. They aren't made for the life altering experience that's lackingly called war. They don't know how to deal with death, destruction, and loss of innocence, so they simply don't.
(Maybe, one day, they'll forgive themselves. These three Hufflepuffs might look just the same, but below the surface, they couldn't be more different. Maybe that's why it could never work out)
