Hello my friends! So, I know this isn't exactly a traditional story, so I thought I'd just let you know that the chapters aren't really supposed to be traditional either. It's organized into tiny flashes intentionally. Kay? Just wanted to clear that up for any of you curious types. So, sorry if that isn't your thing.
YEAR FOUR
Axel had boarded the Hogwarts Express on the first day of their fourth year with two tear drop shaped tattoos underneath his eyes. Roxas had pretended not to notice.
It was hard to pretend not to notice when Axel had so kindly strode into his compartment, much like the time they first met, and plopped down right across from him. Sora, who was also inhabiting the compartment, sniggered to himself and looked at his feet. Roxas could swear the brunette knew something about Axel that he didn't.
Hayner, whom Axel had sat down next to, scoffed importantly, and scooted a few inches away.
"What?" said Axel, looking round at them all, "Do I smell or something?"
Roxas shut his eyes and tried his very best not to curse Axel with a stinging jinx. "Oh, I don't know, Axel. Maybe you've just spent the last three years of our lives tormenting us? And that aside, isn't it against Slytherin code to talk to an 'outsider?' From what I understand, your superior asses are too superior to allow your superiority to sink down into the lower class houses."
"It was never put in writing," said Axel with ease. Why was he here? It made Roxas very uncomfortable, to say the least. Not only did he not like the redhead, but it was also impossible for him to relax, not knowing what kind of motives Axel had or when he intended to strike.
A sharp rapping sounded through the glass door to the compartment; it looked as though Axel's little Slytherin friends were flagging him down.
"Hey, Axel, what are you doing in there?" one of the particularly stupider ones called out.
Axel didn't take his eye off Roxas'.
"Hang on, Montague, I'll be out in a second," he replied.
"Don't keep them waiting on our account," said Hayner, making absolutely no attempt to disguise his distaste for Axel's presence.
Axel, looking unperturbed, stood up fluidly. "Let's settle the score," he proclaimed, spreading his arms, "For good. We'll settle our differences like men. Meet me out at the Quidditch field, Saturday night, ten o'clock. Don't be late."
"Why would you want to meet me on the Quidditch field," Roxas asked, highly suspicious. Usually they just dueled in the hallways. He supposed there were less things to hurt outside, but—
"So we can play Quidditch, of course," Axel replied.
~o~
"All right, Roxas? I actually thought you weren't gonna come."
"Well, it's not like you stuck around long enough for me to refuse," Roxas replied disgruntledly, trudging up with field with his Cleansweep Six. This was not the first, but the eighth time this year he'd come to play against Axel. If he didn't know any better, he'd say Axel was having fun with it. With November fast coming to a close, Roxas decided, with his teeth chattering, that he'd had enough of this foolishness.
He was backed by Sora and Seamus Finnigan, Hayner's younger brother, and a notably better Quidditch player. Axel was flanked by Montague, the captain of the Slytherin team, and by his friend Demyx, with the mullet. Roxas was a pretty decent player, but he couldn't be much of a match for Montague. No, it didn't matter, he had to do it.
"I've a proposition for you, Axel," he said boldly.
Demyx sniggered. That was okay; he probably wasn't smart enough to know what proposition meant.
Axel, looking rather amused himself, said, "All right, I'll humor you."
"Let's raise the stakes a little bit, here," said Roxas. "If Gryffindor wins, this is our last match. No rematches, no final calls. Just this."
He could hear murmurs all around from other people that had shown up to watch. With the Triwizard Tournament going on and no official Quidditch this year, Roxas and Axel's teams had become something of an underground sporting event. Students knew, go to the Quidditch pitch on the first and third Saturday of the month to catch a free show. He felt slightly guilty for just shutting down and calling it quits on them, but Roxas knew that Gryffindor's real team would probably step in soon to rectify that; in fact the blonde often wondered why they hadn't already.
Axel looked unaffected, in fact he and his two teammates burst into laughter as though Roxas had just said the funniest thing in the world. Something every Slytherin had in common, Roxas realized, was an array of inside jokes against Gryffindors that could be used for almost every occasion. It pissed him off that they never took him seriously.
"You're such a good boy," said Axel, "Never breaking the rules, always want to please everyone else. You never live life on the edge. You're always so afraid to cause a rumble. Shake people up. Start a fire. Let's say I call it a deal. You win, then we don't play anymore. What about when I win?"
Roxas didn't like the sound of this. This could not end well.
"Suppose you did?" he offered weakly. He knew he'd have to let Axel place his own stakes, and there was no telling what he'd do with that kind of power.
A wolfish grin spread across the redhead's features. "If Slytherin wins, Blondie, then you have to go to the Yule Ball with me."
"What?!"
Slytherins all around were laughing at him, and the Gryffindors were exchanging looks. Go to the Yule Ball? With… Axel?
"It's your call, man," said Seamus, "We're not the ones that'll have to go out with firecrotch if we lose."
"You guys wanted out, too," Roxas reasoned.
Sora and Seamus exchanged looks. "Yeah, but, it's not like we're bound by any kind of code to even play this match. We could throw it, then just not show up for another one," said Sora. They both looked over to where Axel and his team were sharing a hearty laugh about something or another; most likely humor at Roxas' expense.
"No way," said Roxas, "Nowhere in the bargain does it say that if we lose, we still have to play the next match. I can handle one date; I'd rather risk that than walk out of here undignified. I don't know if you noticed," he gestured over to the stands, where the Weasley twins were no doubt collecting bets, "But it would be pretty shitty of us to not play this round. I'd rather walk out of here, either having won or lost, than walk out of here having been too afraid to play at all."
Sora smiled at him and nodded firmly. He and Seamus both held their hands out, one on top of the other. Roxas placed his hand atop the pile.
"On three then… one, two, three, GO GO GRYFFINDOR!"
~o~
"My, don't you look lovely this evening."
Rumor had been swirling about the castle during the weeks leading up to Christmas Eve that Axel Flynn would be taking Roxas Strife to the Yule Ball, but very few people knew for certain if that were true or not. Some of the stories had gotten so ludicrous that any true knowledge behind them was negligible. Roxas heard one third-year saying that he was expected to show up in women's dress robes, while he heard another saying that Axel had to threaten him with a Hungarian Horntail in order for him to agree.
He felt dozens of pairs of eyes on him as he allowed himself to be escorted into the Entrance Hall by none other than Axel himself, who, as much as Roxas hated to admit it, looked rather dashing in his emerald green dress robes. It looked as though he had tamed his hair for the occasion, and had swept it all back into a neat little ponytail. Roxas, on the other hand, had not done much in his attempts to flatten his perpetually messy do. It didn't feel like a special occasion to him. In fact he'd been rather dreading it.
"Oh come on, Roxy, you can't ignore me for the whole evening," said Axel, sounding only slightly disappointed underneath his thick layer of sarcasm.
"Don't call me Roxy," Roxas snapped.
"He speaks!" the redhead called delightedly, throwing his free arm up in the air. Roxas did not crack a smile. There was nothing even remotely funny or happy about this situation. He was linking arms with his arch enemy instead of the ridiculously attractive Beauxbatons girl who had asked him (in rather spotty English, admittedly) to go with him last week. But no, he was bound by code of honor to spend all night with this… buffoon. How humiliating. He was starting to regret not just walking away from the playing field.
Despite the humility of the situation, Roxas walked with his head held high. Yeah, he totally threw that Quidditch match on purpose.
They sat at their table quietly as the four Champions entered the Great Hall with their dates; Fleur Delacour with Roger Davies, who looked rather plain with her standing in comparison, Viktor Krum with Hermione Granger, Cedric Diggory with Cho Chang, who looked perfectly at home in the spotlight, and lastly, Harry Potter with Parvati Patil. Roxas smirked to himself, with the knowledge that somewhere in the Hall, Ron Weasley was sitting with Padma Patil.
One by one, couples began to approach the dance floor, some spiraling with exuberant skill, others swaying back and forth awkwardly. Regardless, everyone, Hogwarts and otherwise, seemed to be having a good time, and the Great Hall was magnificent.
Axel cleared his throat. "Might I have one dance?" he asked politely.
Roxas supposed there was no getting out of it; the ball ran until midnight. Better to get it out of the way now, while the floor was crowded with flocks of witches and wizards, all eager to begin dancing early. In his simple black dress robes, Roxas didn't think he would be all that conspicuous, so he nodded stiffly. Axel had promised when the match was over that he'd be on his best behavior and so far, he'd kept that promise.
Nobody is looking at you, Roxas told himself as Axel began to spin him around, See? Plenty of girls are dancing together, there's absolutely nothing weird about this. The entire Triwizard Tournament thingy is about intermingling, right? Yeah, you're fine.
He knew it was no use, since the only people not watching them were those from other schools. So, reluctantly, he started focusing more on the dancing aspect. The Weird Sisters were playing some kind of waltz, a peculiar tune for a grunge band. Honestly Roxas had no clue what he was doing. Fortunately, Axel was an excellent dancer (damn him), and with him leading, it wasn't all that difficult for Roxas to keep up.
When the slower songs came to a close, Roxas figured he'd better get off the dance floor as quickly as possible before the mosh pits started to form.
As soon as he tried steering them away, however, Axel pleaded, "Oh wait, Rox, I love this song!"
"I'm just going to sit over there!" Roxas shouted back (the music was very loud). He pointed over to an empty table near the Christmas tree, "Just come find me when you're done."
Axel gave him a pouty kind of look, but quickly returned to shamelessly dancing solo. Once Roxas was alone, he took advantage of this new opportunity to collect himself.
"Okay, don't panic," he muttered aloud. Who would hear him over the music anyway? "It was just dancing for goodness' sake. So you're here with a Slytherin. So you're here with Axel. It's not the end of the world. So, maybe you may or may not have just been having fun. With Axel… who I just don't fucking get!"
He pounded the table with his fist, so utterly confused. He peeked into the throng to see Axel looking like he was having the time of his life, just sporadically throwing his hips around in an even crazier fashion than that Luna girl from Ravenclaw. Roxas had to remind himself that the redhead was only doing this to humiliate him, to keep himself from considering the possibility that maybe they could be friends.
~o~
"Hey Roxas, this seat taken?"
Axel quickly sat down anyway before the blonde could insist otherwise. In all honesty, he had no idea what he was doing, or why he was doing it. But it was too late to change his mind now; seating around the Black Lake was filling up quick, in preparation for the second task. Axel ignored the curious looks he was getting from Draco Malfoy and pretended not to hear his other friends flagging him down.
"I suppose it is now," Roxas grumbled. Youch. While he'd never exactly hidden his dislike for Axel, Axel never truly wanted to believe that that dislike was personal. Was mere playful banter on his part actually genuine hatred on Roxas'? That was never his intention.
"Why d'you even reckon they're having us watch this?" he asked conversationally, "We won't be able to see a damn thing."
Roxas looked at him spitefully before replying, "I don't know, but I'm not gonna complain about it, since it got us out of class—hey, where's Harry?"
Axel looked down to see that three Champions from three schools were indeed lined up at the bank near the judges' table, but Harry Potter was missing. A curious kid, Potter was. While Axel hadn't worn the Potter Stinks badge like the rest of the kids in his year, he did find Potter a bit overrated. Trouble seemed to find him wherever he went, yes, but it always seemed like he was just barely scraping through it all. But at least Harry never claimed otherwise, so Axel supposed he had some respect for him.
But today, the fourth Champion was nowhere to be found until minutes before nine-thirty, when the task was set to start. He came sprinted down the lawn just as soon as Ludo Bagman modified his voice for the occasion.
"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. The have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One… two… three!"
The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause, so much was the enthusiasm that Axel could hardly tell what was going on. Krum looked like he was turning into some kind of shark, while Cedric and Fleur had already disappeared into the murky waters. Meanwhile Harry… was just standing there. Laughter was beginning to erupt throughout the audience when Harry suddenly dropped himself into the lake, and it became clear to Axel exactly how everyone intended to watch.
Someone's wand—most likely Bagman's—was projecting an four images, collectively, out on the lake for everyone to see, each featuring one of the four champions. Fleur and Cedric both appeared to have glass fishbowls over their heads, presumably supplying air, while Potter looked rather odd, and fishy, almost as though he'd become a merman himself.
Suddenly, on Krum's end of the projection, the Giant Squid emerged, startling Axel greatly, along with the rest of the crowd's. It wasn't as though Axel had never seen it before; the windows in the Slytherin quarters looked out into the depths of the lake, so the squid's appearance really wasn't that uncommon for him. But seeing it that up close and personal… let's just say it surprised him. He wasn't scared, just surprised. Enough to reflexively clutch Roxas by the wrist. Actually, the area he had grabbed was dangerously close to his hand. So dangerously close that the common eye would probably mistake them for holding hands. Ah, who was he kidding? Axel missed his wrist completely.
As soon as he became aware of this screw up, he let go and mumbled a swift apology. The squid was gone, and Moaning Myrtle was hanging out on Potter's end of the spectrum. Apparently she was giving him directions; was that even legal? Meanwhile, Fleur Delacour was fast approaching the surface, a pile of Grindylows on her flanks. Silly girl, didn't she know that a simple repelling charm could get rid of them? He guessed they didn't cover loch-lurkers in the region of Beauxbatons. Good. That gave Hogwarts a definite advantage. He wondered if Durmstrang had a modified curriculum as well.
He couldn't stop thinking about Roxas' hands. They were soft to the touch, and if he didn't know any better, he'd say that they clutched back at his. Perhaps he was simply shocked too? Axel had to know. Because for quite a while now, he was embarrassed to say he had the biggest crush on Roxas. Roxas! A stupid, hard-headed mudblood! A shallow Gryffindor! A—an extremely attractive, talented wizard.
Damn it, he was way past crushing.
Tentatively, he reached out again, only to touch, not to take. He passed it off as a mere change in sitting position. To his dismay, Roxas moved said hand down to scratch his ankle. When his arm came back up, he crossed it over the other one. Sure, it looked casual enough, but the message was clear. Keep your hands off me, weirdo.
~o~
"Did you know him?"
Roxas whipped around to see Axel standing right behind him. He'd thought he'd been so sneaky, creeping away from the crowd. They were all too busy staring at the body—Cedric's body, which arrived out in the open for everyone to see, attached to Harry Potter. He hadn't known Cedric, but he'd never seen a dead body before. He didn't think anybody would notice if he left the area; many others were fleeing the scene. While they'd gone back to the castle, he chose instead to approach a young willow tree (one that didn't attack anything that moved) and cry alone.
Or so he thought.
"I—I didn't know him well," he said, trying not to sniffle so conspicuously, "But it's overwhelming, you know? He took Ancient Runes with me this year— guess divination wasn't his thing—but it's just unbelievable to think that he's never going to sit in that chair again. He's not coming back next year. A-and, I don't know, we weren't friends, but he used to let me borrow his n-notes—"
He knew it wasn't silly to cry in a situation like this, but given he'd been hardwired to consider Axel an enemy by now, he really didn't want the redhead seeing tears flowing so freely.
"W-why are you here?" he questioned shakily. It was too late to stop Axel from seeing the few tears he couldn't keep bottled up, but he knew that a full scale meltdown probably wasn't too far behind. He definitely didn't want anyone to see that.
Axel stepped forward, with a sort of pained expression on his face. "I'm here because I care about a friend."
Roxas was so shocked he couldn't even react when Axel took yet another step forward and embraced him. Having someone's arms around him, even if they were Axel's, made him feel protected and free of judgment. This time when the tears came, they were of his own accord. His body shook with sobs and he pressed his face against Axel's chest.
"Guess I missed the memo," said Roxas sheepishly, after he had calmed down a little. This is weird, he told himself, remember? What the heck is gonna happen now?
"I know you don't really like me all the much, Rox, but—"
"It's okay," Roxas cut him off. "I'm sorry I'm so mean to you. I guess I've just had this stupid idea in my head this whole time that you deserve it. But now that I think about it, maybe I was the one being an asshole this whole time. We can be friends, Axel."
He didn't mean to put emphasis on the word 'friend,' but by the almost disappointed look on Axel's face, he knew that the word bore significance to him. Great.
When he boarded the Hogwarts Express at eleven years old, he never imagined in a million years that he would have to friend zone Axel Flynn.
