Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Author's Note: Written first and foremost for Morghen, from the Gift-Giving Extravaganza. I hope you like it! This is also being submitted to the Colors Competition (Green, positive - write a next-gen story), the Ultimate Doctor Who Episode Competition (The Rebel Flesh - write a next-gen story), and the As Strong As We Are United Competition.
He was eleven, and still getting used to Hogwarts, and being away from home. It was only September, and he still had a lot to learn - including the fact that Slytherins weren't friends, even Slytherins who were cousins. He left the Great Hall after dinner stormily, still fuming over Lily. Louis caught up to him relatively quickly. "Looks like something's wrong," the older boy said.
"Lily's a jerk," Hugo mumbled. Even though Louis was his cousin, he was still nervous to be around the other boy; Louis was so cool and popular and handsome, and he - Hugo - was a nobody. He kept his eyes on the ground, not daring to look at Louis.
"What happened?" Louis asked. "I thought you two were pretty close."
"Earlier today..." Hugo paused, and then made himself continue, trying to let the words flow effortlessly. "Earlier today she was with one of the other Slytherin girls, and that girl said that Hufflepuffs were idiots, and Lily nodded and said yes. She agreed, Louis! Even though you and I, and Al and Lucy, are all Hufflepuffs." He dared to look up at Louis, who didn't look nearly as bothered about it as Hugo had hoped.
"Sometimes people act weird when their friends are around," Louis said simply. "Especially Slytherins. They all feel like they need to have each other's backs and agree with each other all the time, because the other Houses don't like them very much. I'm sure she didn't actually mean it." He shrugged. "Don't let it bother you. We know we're awesome, right?" He nudged Hugo's shoulder.
"I'm awesome?"
"Of course. Don't let anyone tell you anything else, all right?"
o0o0o0o
Hugo felt a tap on his shoulder, and he sat bolt upright, awakened from his slumber. Louis stood over him, his wand lit, a piece of silvery-gray material folded over his arm. Hugo opened his mouth, several different questions going to the tip of his tongue, but Louis shook his head, pulling Hugo out of bed and out of the dormitory. Once they were in the common room, he stopped, waiting for Hugo.
"Is that Uncle Harry's Cloak?" Hugo asked, incredulous.
"Well, Lily took it. She's had it since last year - smuggled it into her trunk before her first day of Hogwarts." Louis was speaking quietly, but Hugo, standing as close as he was, could hear the words clearly. "And I convinced her to give it to me for a night."
Hugo raised his eyebrows. "You mean, you paid her off."
"I didn't pay her off," Louis protested.
"She certainly didn't give it to you from the kindness of her heart," Hugo pointed out, and Louis rolled his eyes.
"I'm getting her something, fine. But I won't be able to if you don't hurry up." Louis unfolded the Cloak, throwing it over himself and Hugo. It was very tempting to ask where they were going, but there was no chance; they couldn't risk speaking and being overheard once they were out in the halls.
Sneaking out like this felt odd. Hugo wasn't a fanatic about the rules like Dominique, but he certainly wasn't the type to purposely sneak out, either; he generally tried to avoid getting in trouble. This sort of thing was Lily, Roxanne, or James's territory, not his. There was a certain thrill, though, to sneaking around under the cloak with Louis. It felt good to be included in Louis's adventure, especially since Louis was a whole year older than little second-year Hugo.
Louis guided Hugo to the third floor, where they reached the statue of a one-eyed witch with a humpback; he tapped it with his wand and muttered something Hugo didn't catch. Whatever he had said was either a password or a spell - Hugo couldn't tell - because it caused the hump to open into a dark passageway. Pulling the cloak off, Louis lit his wand. "Go ahead," he whispered. "I'll be right behind you."
If it had been Lily, Hugo would have been determined not to go first and have her behind him; she'd probably shut the statue on him or something. Louis looked so sincere, though, that Hugo found himself trusting the other boy completely. He climbed in, and a short slide carried him down. He stood up, moving out of the way for Louis, who promptly followed, holding the Cloak over his arm and his wand in his hand. The passageway stretched into darkness; Hugo couldn't see the end of it.
They walked for several minutes in silence, and then Louis apparently decided it was safe enough to speak. "This leads us straight to the basement of Honeydukes," he said casually, as if he did this every night.
Hugo's mouth dropped open. "We're sneaking to Hogsmeade?" His voice rose in pitch on the last syllable, and Louis winced.
"Shh - don't be too loud. I don't know where exactly we are right now - I mean, what's above us," he said hastily, for Hugo had shot him an incredulous look. "But yes, we're sneaking to Hogsmeade. See," he started, and Hugo knew he was in for one of Louis's long - but true - explanations. "My roommate said that I never did anything interesting, and so I said that I knew a secret passage to Hogsmeade. He dared me to go and said I had to prove I went, so I promised to bring him a box of Honeydukes' best chocolate. Then I needed the Invisibility Cloak from Lily so that I wouldn't get caught, so I had to promise to bring her a box as well."
"And where do I come into this?"
Louis shrugged. "Thought you'd enjoy going on a bit of an adventure." He smiled. "Plus, you're my favorite cousin."
At the time, Hugo was simply happy for the compliment, happy that his cool older cousin liked him.
Looking back, Hugo thinks that might have been when he first fell in love.
o0o0o0o
All his roommates had started focusing on girls the second they entered third year, and Hugo had no idea how to act when they started talking about these things.
It wasn't as though he found all of the Hogwarts girls ugly. No, he could see that there were some who were prettier than others, but he didn't think too much of it. He just didn't care who had the largest breasts in his year or who swung her hips when she moved; he barely batted an eye when girls tried to act sexy. They just weren't interesting to him in that way.
His roommates thought he was just shy, or too polite to talk about girls as dirtily as they did - because thirteen-year-old boys, Hugo soon found out, were very, very lewd at times. They joked about him being the innocent one and the quiet one, because it was true. Hugo was innocent and quiet, and he had shown himself to be both of those things before. If they thought anything else, they didn't say it to his face.
They must not have noticed the way that Hugo spent his time paying attention to blokes, not girls - and Hugo tried not to notice the fact that Louis was a very attractive bloke.
o0o0o0o
"I see you staring, you know." Lily seemed to appear out of nowhere, and Hugo toppled off his chair as he jumped, the book flying from his hands.
"What the hell?" Lily didn't respond instantly; she offered a hand to him and pulled him back up, surprisingly strong for someone who was shorter than some second-years, and flicked her wand at the book so that it flew into her hand. "And was that - how did you do a Summoning Charm? We've barely started that!"
"I've been practicing," she said breezily, setting it on the table. "Did you hear me, Hugo?"
"Yeah. You said you see me staring - but at what?" Hugo's heart beat quickly in his chest - she didn't catch him staring at Louis, right? She couldn't - hadn't he been subtle? "I don't stare at anything."
Lily rolled her eyes, something she had probably done a million times in her fourteen years on Earth. "You're not subtle, Hugo. I see you staring at Louis."
"Quiet!" Hugo frantically glanced around, hoping nobody had heard Lily's words. They were in the back corner of the library, though, practically near the Restricted Section, and few people studied in this area of the library - the lighting wasn't as good, and it was perpetually dim. Hugo liked it for the quiet and lack of people.
"Oh, nobody's here." Lily waved a dismissive hand and flopped into the chair across from Hugo, throwing her feet up on the table. "So, what are you going to do about it? You fancy him, don't you?"
"I, er, don't," Hugo said lamely. He had always been a terrible liar, and it was even more noticeable to someone like Lily, who had a pretty good idea of who was lying and who was telling the truth.
"Sure." She waited, and finally Hugo continued.
"I can't do anything about it, Lily. He's my cousin - and besides, he's a bloke. Why are you so...okay with this?"
"Really, Hugo, it's the twenty-first century. And I may be a lot of things that aren't particularly good, but I'm not prejudiced. If you fancy Louis, well, cool." She shrugged. "How are you going to let him know?"
"Let him know? Lily, are you insane?"
"Maybe," she said cheerfully. "But you know, if you don't tell him how you feel, then you're just going to spend all of your time pining after him like a silly little fan pining over a celebrity. You'll watch him have other relationships, fall in love with people who aren't you-"
"Shut up." The thought of Louis with other people was painful to think about. Hugo had already tried reconciling with the idea; it hadn't worked. Lily was right. Seeing Louis with other people would be painful, because Hugo wanted to be the one on Louis's arm, the one kissing Louis's lips, the one doing things to Louis that were most certainly not appropriate to think about in the Hogwarts library...
"Snap out of it." Lily snapped her fingers in front of Hugo's face. "Go tell him. I hate seeing you watching him from afar. It's kind of pathetic - you're way better when you're happy." She swung her legs off the table and got to her feet, adjusting the Slytherin tie that hung haphazardly around her neck. Without a goodbye, she was gone, and Hugo shook his head - dealing with Lily was always interesting, to say the least. Her words rung true, however; Hugo didn't want to see Louis with other people.
o0o0o0o
Hugo couldn't work up the nerve to talk to Louis seriously for a while; by the time he finally got the courage, he was on the Hogwarts Express to return for his fifth year. He managed to get a compartment by himself, and when he saw Louis walking by, he opened the door. "Hey, Louis?"
Louis's face split into a wide grin. "Hey, Hugo! Haven't seen you in so long," he said, his voice sarcastic, but joking enough so that Hugo knew he wasn't being mean. They had seen each other the night before; every August 31st, the Weasley-Potters held an end-of-summer party for themselves, to talk and hang out. It gave those who weren't going back to Hogwarts an opportunity to spend time with those who were returning. "What is it?"
Hugo took a deep breath. "Can I talk to you? Privately?"
Louis looked slightly confused, but he nodded, entering Hugo's compartment. "Sure."
Hugo shut the door, locking it quietly. He didn't really want anybody to overhear their conversation; it wasn't the sort of thing that he wanted spread around Hogwarts. His roommates had started to get the idea that Hugo didn't fancy girls, but they hadn't started rumors, thankfully, and he wanted to keep it that way. "I'd like to tell you something," he said quietly. "Something that I haven't really told anybody else." He figured his conversation with Lily almost a year ago didn't count, since that had been her figuring it out, not him confessing it.
"Go ahead." Louis sat down, and Hugo did as well, sitting across from his cousin.
It was impossible for Hugo's mind not to jump to the obvious - that they were alone in a locked area. Hugo was, after all, a teenage boy; he couldn't help but imagine the possibilities of what could happen with the two of them alone like this. Shaking those thoughts out of his head quickly, he blushed. "I wanted to tell you, er, that I don't..." He looked down at the floor, and his voice was quieter on the last two words. "Fancy girls."
Louis was silent for a moment, and then he said, "I'm fine with it, you know. It doesn't bother me - especially considering you're my favorite cousin." He nudged Hugo's leg. "That hasn't changed, you know."
"You're my favorite cousin too," Hugo replied, wishing that Louis would realize that Hugo thought of him as more than just a cousin.
o0o0o0o
"I talked to Louis," Lily said a couple of weeks later, falling into step beside Hugo as they made their way to the Great Hall for dinner.
"About what?" Hugo hefted his bag higher on his shoulder, mentally cursing whoever thought it was a good idea to create books that weighed more than small children.
"You," Lily said breezily, and Hugo nearly fell flat on his face.
"What?" He came to a complete stop, whirling to face Lily. He had nearly a head of height over her - most people did - but she didn't even seem to notice. "What do you mean by that?" he continued, trying to shoot a fierce glare at her. He had no idea how he looked, since he didn't really yell or argue - or glare - very often, but Lily didn't seem to care about his anger, either.
"Oh, relax," Lily said. "I didn't walk up to him and say 'Hugo fancies you'. I just dropped hints."
"Hints?" Hugo yelped.
Lily looked impatient. "I'm much more subtle than you could ever be. I'm trying to help you here, you know. We're friends - I want to see you happy, not all pathetic and mopey. So if you two get together, then you'll be happy, and then I'll be able to devote my time to other schemes that aren't so bloody difficult." She sighed.
"You have other schemes?"
"Of course I have other schemes, Hugo," Lily said, patting him on the shoulder. "I've been plotting things since before I could read. Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe there's food in the Great Hall that has my name on it." She smirked at him and darted off, and Hugo was left wondering, still, what exactly she had said to Louis.
o0o0o0o
Hugo got his answer relatively quickly. Three days passed before Louis approached him in the common room, sitting on the chair near Hugo's. "Talked to Lily the other day," Louis said neutrally.
"And, er, what did she want?" Hugo said.
"Well, she brought up the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend and stuff, and she was complaining about what Mina did to you."
Hugo was confused. Mina was Lily's roommate, he knew, a relatively unassuming half-blood Slytherin girl that Hugo had never interacted with in his life. "Um..." Hugo said, but Louis had continued.
"It was horrible of Mina to promise she was going with you and then pass it off as a joke," Louis said sympathetically. "Sorry to hear that - I know you don't fancy her, but I guess you two were friendly, at least?"
Lily. Damn Lily and her schemes, Hugo thought. Or rather, damn the fact that Lily decided not to tell him whatever her plan was, leaving him to fend for himself. "Er, yeah," Hugo said eloquently, fidgeting with a scrap of spare parchment that had been on the arm of the chair. "Friendly."
Louis looked at him strangely, but didn't say anything about it. "Well, Lily just said that you didn't have anyone who would hang out with you at Hogsmeade. So I was thinking that I could set you up with this bloke in my year - he's single, and -"
Hugo cut him off. "Thanks but no thanks. I'm not really interested."
Louis frowned. "You don't even know him, I bet." He looked as though he wanted to say more, as though he was hiding something. "Or...do you fancy someone else?" There was an undercurrent of something - excitement? happiness? - in his voice.
Hugo shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know." He couldn't believe his own daring, actually admitting to Louis that he might fancy somebody. Of course, he hadn't told Louis who he fancied, but still. Baby steps.
"All right," Louis said slowly. "Well, maybe we could just hang out at Hogsmeade, then. At least you won't be all by yourself."
"Sounds good," Hugo answered. It would sound even better if it were an actual date.
o0o0o0o
"Hugo Weasley!" Lily's hands flew to her hips, and she glared up at him. He was thankful that it was night, and most people were either in the library or in their common rooms. That way, nobody would see Lily yelling at him. She looked remarkably like their grandmother at the moment, a comparison she probably wouldn't have appreciated. "Why must the two of you be so damn thick?"
"Huh?" Hugo said, and Lily gestured to him, as if to say 'case in point.'
"I basically told Louis to ask you to Hogsmeade, and you two end up going together, but nothing came out of it. Bloody hell, Hugo, you've been pining after him for years - what the hell do I have to do, grab your faces and shove your lips to his?" She looked pensive for a moment, as if she was actually considering the prospect, but then she reverted back to her annoyance. "You're making this so difficult, you know that?"
"I never asked you to get involved in my love life," Hugo pointed out, and Lily rolled her eyes.
"You don't have a love life. I'm trying to help you in that respect - and I don't see you protesting too much, either." She shook her head, and as she walked away Hugo swore he heard her mutter, "Desperate times call for desperate measures."
That didn't sound good.
o0o0o0o
"I got a...strange...note the other day," Louis said, and Hugo's gaze snapped toward him. Ever since Lily had gotten annoyed with him, he had been on the lookout for some sign of her interference; he hadn't noticed anything yet.
"What was it?"
"Ah, wait a second. I think it's in my bag." He rummaged around for a second, and then gave up, doing a Summoning Charm instead. A piece of parchment flew into his hand, and he passed it to Hugo, who quickly read it.
You have a secret admirer who's too shy to tell you how he feels.
"That's it?" Hugo turned the piece of parchment around, trying to see if there was more to it. He knew it had to have been from Lily, but it seemed oddly simple compared to her contrived attempt to get the two of them to go to Hogsmeade together.
"Yeah." Louis took the note back, slipping it into the book bag it had been in before. "So," he said, his gaze unreadable, "who do you think it might be?"
"I..." Hugo took a deep breath, glancing around the common room. It was mostly empty; many people were outside, enjoying the unseasonably warm temperatures, taking advantage of the pleasant weather while they could. "I have something else to tell you," Hugo admitted.
Louis's eyes flicked toward the book bag. "Is...is it you?"
"I didn't send the note. But - wait, what?"
"I've suspected for a little while." Louis shrugged. "You aren't the most subtle person in the world, Hugo. I've picked up on things, you know, whenever we hang out. I see you looking at me when you think I'm not looking. I see you checking me out. I figured it out recently, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure. And that's not the sort of thing that it's easy to just ask somebody, especially when that somebody is a cousin. But Hugo, you know, you should have told me."
"Why?" Hugo's voice was barely a whisper.
"You thick prat, I've fancied you for a little while too."
o0o0o0o
"So we have Lily to thank?" Louis said. The two boys were in Louis's dorm, sitting on the bed. For a little while they had been kissing, but then Louis had gotten curious about Lily's involvement in the whole situation.
"Yeah. She sent the note, and when she talked to you about Hogsmeade a little while ago, she was trying to get you to ask me. I never had anything with Mina Francis - we've never even talked. Lily was just saying that to give an excuse for you to feel bad for me, or something like that." Hugo shrugged. "She didn't actually clue me in on any part of her plans. She just went along and did them."
Louis pulled Hugo close to him. "I'm glad she did."