And her it is, folks! I hope you enjoy this and just know that I've never written a sporting event before, so any comments on the game are very appreciated.

Btw, I'm sorry in advance.

The Hufflepuff Horror Party had come soon after their Hogsmeade visit and it was great.

Of course, that was to be expected. The Hufflepuff House prided itself on, among other things, throwing great parties, and they all put their best efforts into it. The party took place in the Hall of the Slain, the night after the Halloween Feast. The hall was decorated so it was dark, like you were standing inside the Forbidden Forest in the dead of night. In fact, fifth year students from Hufflepuff, when asked to practice spells that made plants grow faster in Herbology, had practiced on tree seeds from the Forest. This resulted in full grown trees decorating the Hall, completed with spider webs and fake bats that flied as if they were real. The traditional floating Jack 'o Lanterns of Hogwarts weren't missing either. They drifted across the room, casting their dim, in many cases multicolored light upon the partying students like magical disco balls.

In the end, while they might not have gone to the party as the Scooby Doo gang, they went as the Power Rangers (blame Magnus). That, of course, had brought up the discourse of who would get to be the Red Ranger. In the end, after a lot of fighting and arguments between Halfborn and Alex he preferred not to think back to, they had decided Sam should be the Red one. Halfborn was Blue, T.J was Green, Magnus was Yellow, Alex was Pink and Mallory was Black. The might have been incredibly warm in their suits, and wearing their helmets may have resulted to Halfborn stumbling over a group of second years, but hey, they had an excuse to strike ridiculous poses without anyone judging them (that had been Magnus' main argument in favor of this choice).

They had a great time! There were party streamers and confetti all over the place, which the first and second years used to play war. At any given moment, you could be knocked off your feet from a rushing kid who was running away from an attack or on a mission to steal the enemy's supply of party goods. Since Alex had never had the opportunity to partake in Hogwarts' legendary Party War, the table 19 gang joined the younger students, Magnus, Sam and Alex on one side and Halfborn, Mallory and T.J on the other. They threw confetti and party streamers at each other. Halfborn head-locked Alex and rubbed confetti on his hair as he struggled to get away. T.J and Mallory had a full on "snowball fight" with balls made of party streamers and dragged Sam into it too. Magnus used his legendary attack and threw a giant pile of party supplies at the enemy side while yelling "Booyakasha!"

It had become much quieter at ten, when the first, second and third years had to leave because of curfew. The older years, however, were allowed to stay longer and Magnus, like his friends and everyone in his year, were extremely giddy about being able to stay longer. They danced and pulled ridiculous shit, like trying to form a human pyramid even though they had never done that before. They ended up a mess of spandex clad bodies on the floor, wiggling around like fish out of water and trying to get untangled.

Magnus and Alex were by the buffet table, having a competition to see who could find the nastiest Every Flavor Bean. This far in, Magnus had to eat some that tasted like egg, berries, vomit, grass (which tasted surprisingly nice) and pineapple. He was about to eat a green one Alex handed him that could be either bogeys or green apple when Alex talked.

"So what did Sam want to talk to you about the other day?"

"What do you mean?" Magnus asked as he popped the candy in his mouth. Thank goodness, it was apple.

"When Sam took you outside to talk when we were in Valhalla," Alex said. "You didn't look too good afterwards. Neither did she, now that I think about it."

Magnus averted his eyes from Alex, now finding the bowl of candy much more interesting. After his talk with Sam, he had tried to act normal. He had tried to act like everything was fine, but his mood had dampened significantly and, even though he hadn't realized it, all his friends picked up on it. Magnus joked along with them and laughed with them, but he wasn't there with them; his heart wasn't in it.

"Look," Alex said as he stepped closer to Magnus, the candy forgotten completely now. "I… don't know what's happening, honestly. And I'm not good at this whole 'friends' thing, I never got much practice. But everyone is worried about you and… I'm worried too." He paused, taking a deep breath like he was psyching himself up to say what he wanted. "What you said after what that boy did really helped me. I want to help you too and talking to people makes you feel better."

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, pink tonight to match his costume. "I'm not that good in talking to people about what bothers me, so I probably don't have a right to tell you this, but… talk to Sam. Even if you don't tell her everything, getting some of it off your chest will help, whatever it is."

Magnus looked at the bowl of multicolored beans silently. What Alex said made sense, but still… he was afraid.

When he finally talked, he didn't look at Alex. "I thought you'd ask me to tell you what happened."

From the sound of his voice, the notion surprised Alex. "No, you've know Sam much longer. If it's something so bad to make you this miserable, I thought you'd trust her with it more. Plus, I wouldn't know what to do if you cried. I'd just stand there awkwardly."

Magnus sighed. All around them, the music was beating loud and fast as students danced under the shining colored lights. It was noisy and the air warm and even a bit study from the dozens of sweaty teenagers. Magnus had never thought he'd be in a place so bright and alive and feel anything but that. Until now, he had never understood how you could be around so many people and feel so utterly lonely.

"But," Alex said, his voice cheery. Maybe a bit to cheery. Like he was hoping that his cheerfulness would rub off on Magnus and make him feel better. It didn't quite work. "If anyone has hurt you, then I'm 100% willing to make them pay. That's what friends do, right?"

Magnus gave a pathetic little chuckle. He wondered if Alex could bring his mum back from the dead by punching the Grim Reaper in the face.

"Yeah," Magnus answered absentmindedly. Maybe he should talk to Sam. Maybe it would make him feel better. "Thanks for talking to me, Alex."

"No problem," he said cheerily and popped an Every Flavor Bean in his mouth. Unfortunately for him, it was cat piss. "Eww! Gross!"

Magnus, despite himself, laughed at his friend's misfortune. What Magnus didn't know was that Alex knew perfectly well what that bean tasted like before putting it in his mouth ad it was hardly an accident.

"Come on!" he said after most of the cat piss taste left his tongue and Magnus had had a good laugh at his expense. "Let's go dance with the others!"

"Nah, I think I'm good over here," Magnus said. "I need to do some thinking."

"Nuh uh. No way. I'm not letting you here on your own." As Alex said that, he grabbed Magnus by the wrist and dragged him to the middle of the dance floor. "Plus, I asked them to play that song we talked about in class about now."

"What song?" Magnus asked, right as the band started playing Macarena. He looked Alex dead in the eye. "Seriously?"

She beamed at him. "Yep! Now show me how you dance this again!"

Magnus had meant to talk to Sam after the party. He did, he really did, but… some things are easier said than done. In the week that followed Halloween, he had caught himself about to speak to her at least a dozen times, but every time something always happened and he didn't get the chance to talk. Every time he told himself it didn't matter because he could just talk to her next time. But when the next time came, he still chickened out of it.

Magnus was in the library, doing his homework. T.J was tutoring some younger students for extra credit (not that he really needed it) and he wasn't quite sure where Halfborn was. He was supposed to run some errands for Professor Jack, if Magnus remembered correctly but he wasn't sure. He was sitting by the large window that overlooked the Quidditch field. Mallory, Sam and Alex were practicing along with the rest of the Slytherin team.

Sam was the team's Seeker from this year on since the previous one had graduated. It had been the position she wanted since the beginning, but up until now she had been a Chaser. She was great in the field, but then again Sam was born to fly. Learning how to fly on a broomstick had been what she was most excited about in their first year, and she was amazing at it.

Mallory was a Beater, because of course she'd choose the position when you had to beat up people. She was deadly in a game and might have broken her fair share of bone by accident while playing (both her own and other's). Alex was a Chaser and with their first match of the year this Saturday, she could hardly stay still.

He turned back to the Potions essay in front of him and struggled to get the words to come out. He knew he should have started earlier, but with everything that was happening he couldn't focus on it for long. That resulted with him having to turn in the essay in two days and being hardly half way through the first paragraph.

He sighed again, using an erasing spell to erase the line he had just written. Ugh, why couldn't he write it? It was just a simple essay! And it wasn't even on something difficult, he knew this stuff, but he couldn't concentrate enough to write it.

Or, well, he was concentrated on something, just not what he was supposed to. Struggling to talk to Sam about his mother meant that the topic was always front and center in his brain instead of at the very back, along with all the other horrible things he would have preferred never happened. That, in turn, meant that he had had a horrible mood for days.

Magnus, well, Magnus was a bottler, if that hadn't been clear enough already. He didn't talk about what bothered him, at least not on his own accord. If something troubled him, he never brought it up, preferring to keep it in instead of annoying people with his problems. If he did talk to someone, it was after the other person initiated it and asked him what was wrong. And even then he wouldn't speak unless the bottle was absolutely filled to the brim and one more drop would make it explode.

But keeping all that in, when the bottle was full and heavy with all the small or big things that bothered him, made him feel horrible. And Magnus didn't like feeling like that, which in turn made him feel even worse and drop by drop the bottle kept filling.

He groaned again, much too loud for someone in a library, and flopped down on the table, letting his head rest on the hard wood. This shouldn't be so difficult and he shouldn't get so frustrated or sad over it but he was and that made it even worse.

The blonde was contemplating asking T.J. to write it for him when he heard the scraping sound of someone pulling back a chair. He looked up to see Professor Hearthstone sitting opposite him.

The Ancient Runes teacher was tall and thin, he reminded Magnus a bit of Jack the Pumpkin King from the Nightmare Before Christmas with his long arms and legs. His hair, complexion and even eyes were so white that Magnus wondered whether or not they would be able to find him in snow. There was a slightly pointy tip to his ears and Magnus knew that he had elf blood in his family, however distant it might be.

"Professor Hearthstone?" Magnus asked, confused as to why the Ravenclaw Head of House would be here. "Is there something I can help you with?"

That's actually what I wanted to ask you, the Professor signed.

Professor Hearthstone was deaf and talked in BSL and Halfborn had taught Magnus after he asked him because it seemed interesting. A few parents had complained about his hiring in Hogwarts, saying that the fact he couldn't speak would make lessons more difficult for students. A lot also had problems with his elf descendancy and didn't want their children to be taught by him. As T.J. had explained to them, the matter was resolved when Professor Hearthstone sent every single parent who complained about him a letter containing his family tree to show them how far back his elf ancestor was. In the letter he also told the parents that he used a spell to voice his thoughts for lessons, so if they wanted to complain they should first inform themselves, and that, at the end of the day, their children didn't have to take his lesson if they didn't want to.

I understand you are not necessarily my student, the Professor continued, however it has come to my attention that something is troubling you and I wanted to help.

"H-how did you realize?" Magnus asked, too tired to even try and lie about it.

The teacher raised an eyebrow. I talk frequently with Blitzen, and many of your friends are students of mine. They're all worried about you.

Dread filled up Magnus's heart. He didn't want to worry his friends, that was why he didn't let them know what was wrong with him. But doing that changed nothing, apparently, because his friends still worried, and felt powerless to help their friend when they didn't even know what to help him with.

"I-I don't really want to talk about it," Magnus muttered, training his eyes on his unfinished essay.

Professor Hearthstone reached out and raised his face so Magnus would look at him. I understand, he signed, but as a teacher, I don't enjoy seeing my students in pain. I understand you might not want to talk about some things, and you might not feel comfortable talking about them to everyone. But I know firsthand how much it can hurt everyone around you and most importantly you to keep them in.

Professor Hearthstone sat up straighter. I am not here to make you talk to me. I understand you might not want to. But letting it out of you will help. If you don't want to talk to a teacher or a friend, you can write about it.

"Like a dairy?"

I suppose. What I wanted to say is that you should talk about it if you want to. I can guarantee to you that if you talk to a teacher, they won't tell what you told them to anyone.

Professor Hearthstone stood up, tall and slightly imposing despite being so thin. However, I cannot make you talk if you don't want to. In the end, it's your choice.

The Ancient Runes teacher walked out of the library, leaving Magnus behind, sitting on his own by the large window that overlooked the Quidditch field and feeling lost.

The sky was bright and the atmosphere was buzzing as the stands around the Quidditch filled were alive with the Hogwarts students, young and old, excited for another match of the wizarding world's most famous sport.

If one where to look at the stand from high up, they would see a sea of red and green. Students of all ages were wearing their house scarves proudly to cheer on their teams. Some were waving banners or flags and there was even a student that had charmed a stuffed lion to roar. The air was buzzing with the cacophony of the students shouts and the game hadn't even began yet. Magnus knew from experience it would get much worse as the game progressed.

T.J. and Magnus were in the stands, excited to watch their friends duke it out in the field. Supporting both teams, they were among the few, if not the only, students dressed in both House's colors. T.J had Halfborn's scarf hanging around his neck and Sam's scarf in hand, prepared to start waving it around when the game started. He had a large hat that had 'Slytherin' spelled out on it in silver, glittering paint and a Gryffindor flag in the other hand. Magnus, in the meanwhile, was wearing Alex's scarf around his neck and, like T.J, held Mallory's scarf in one hand and a Gryffindor flag in the other, with his blonde hair covered by a large Gryffindor hat.

"Slytherin! Gryffindor! Slytherin! Gryffindor!" T.J. practically chanted, turning from side to side and waving his arms around.

"T.J., the match hasn't even started yet," Magnus said, keeping a straight face with great difficulty. T.J. always got over excited about Quidditch matches.

"I'm practicing," the dark skinned boy said and went back to waving his arms.

Magnus smiled. T.J. was rightfully excited. Quidditch matches between Gryffindor and Slytherin always got the school buzzing with excitement. The two Houses, while not out for blood, were definitely the most competitive among the four. Their matches were always intense and managed to get everyone's adrenaline pumping, even if they didn't know a lot about the sport.

It wasn't long before the commenter started talking, announcing the teams' entrance.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and all you lovely folks in the stands, it's time for the much awaited match between Gryffindor and Slytherin!"

The stands roared with excitement. Magnus could swear the whole pitch was shaking from the power of their voices, and he might have cared about them collapsing and falling down if he wasn't screaming alongside the other students.

The Gryffindor team run in the field, brooms in hand, as the announcer introduced them and gave fun facts about them.

"And Halfborn Gunderson walks in, real name a total mystery. But don't be fooled by his size, because this giant of a man will beat you in grades like he beats you on the field. Will he be able to score points for his team?"

Claps, whistles and cheers rocked the stands as the Gryffindor students and supporters went wild. Their whole team was lined up in the filled, a row of blazing red and gold flowers among the green grass.

"And now, on the other side of the field, please give a warm welcome to Slytherin!"

The announcer did the same thing as before as the Slytherin players walked in, walking proudly in their dark green robes.

"Mallory Keen walks into the field. Petite as she might me, don't underestimate this fiery redhead unless you want a concussion. Though I wouldn't mind getting one from a beauty like this."

Mallory stood next to her teammates with the confidence of a winner, her wild mane of hair pulled back in a puffy ponytail. She didn't seem to have heard the announcer's flirting, and if she did, she didn't seem to care.

"And here we have Alex Fierro! She/her today, folks, and this young girl seems ready as hell to win her team points!"

Alex was holding her broom on her shoulders, like one might hold a stick to carry buckets of water. She beamed up at the stands and the crowd went wild.

"And now, the Slytherin Seeker, the lady of the skies herself, Samirah al-Abbas!" Sam ran onto the field, green hijab fluttering as she run. She had earned herself a reputation in Hogwarts as an amazing Seeker.

Hunding went over something with the teams, probably asking them for a fair game, before releasing the balls. The players shot up after them, fast and fierce. They flew with such speed and precision Magnus got equally scared and thrilled watching them. They flew left and right, high and low, so fast Magnus could barely keep track of them.

Magnus wasn't the best person to describe a Quidditch match to you, mostly because he only knew the basics of the game, like how many points a goal was worth and that the game ended when the snitch was caught. His limited knowledge, however, didn't stop him from realizing the game was bloody intense. It was been twenty minutes into the match and no one had score yet. The players flew up and down, throwing balls and catching them, zipping past the stands so fast Magnus' hat was almost blown off.

Sam and the Gryffindor Seeker were hovering above the rest of the players. Their eyes were scanning the field, patiently waiting for the appearance of the Snitch. At one point, Sam suddenly dipped down, chasing after a golden blur. The other Seeker soon followed her, desperately trying to catch up. In his hurry, he crashed into Sam and they both lost their chance at the Snitch.

Another twenty minutes passed and now the two teams had each scored a goal. Alex and Halfborn were in a heated battle over one of the quaffle and neither of them was giving up anytime soon. Mallory and the other Beater flew around and attacked the enemy players. Once, Mallory smacked a bludger so close to a Gryffindor player it only missed her by a hair. The Gryffindor girl, surprised by the ball that had just zipped past her, lost her balance, and fell off her broom. Luckily, the pitch was charmed so if one of the students fell, it was like falling on a trampoline instead of on hard ground.

Magnus' voice was going hoarse by the time Alex scored her second goal. The crowd's excitement was contagious and Magnus's cheeks were flushed red from all the yelling and cheering. He was about to turn to T.J to tell him something when the two Seekers suddenly dipped down. They flew towards the ground, going faster and faster, chasing the tiny golden ball that zipped past the other players.

The whole student body watched with bated breath as the two Seekers were neck to neck. They held onto their brooms with one hand, the other hand stretched forward to catch the Snitch. Down and down they went and Magnus couldn't take his eyes of them.

Then, a breath away from the ground, they pulled up. Magnus wasn't sure whether his heart had stopped beating or whether it was beating too fast. He would never understand how Sam could pull stunts like that without feeling scared.

The two teams had stopped playing, waiting to see who caught the Snicth like the other students. The silence that descended on the field was just as deafening as the cheering had been before.

Then Sam raised her right hand up high to show a pair of gold wings jutting out of her closed fist and fluttering wildly.

The stands erupted with cheers. The Slytherin supporters' yells were loud and happy, and while you couldn't make out what each student was saying, you could still understand how ecstatic they all were to have won the match. Even Gryffindor was cheering, simply happy to have seen such an intense match.

"And Slytherin wins, folks! What an amazing match!"

"We won! We won!" T.J cheered, ignoring the fact that, since they were cheering for both teams, they would have won either way. Still, Magnus didn't have the mind to tell him that because he was too busy cheering along with everyone else. Watching his friends play Quidditch gave him this adrenaline-filled feeling like his whole body was buzzing with energy begging to be released. If this is what it felt like for Sam to be flying out there, no wonder she loved it so much.

The stands emptied slowly as the teams went to their respective changing rooms and the students started leaving for dinner. Magnus was still high from the match. He remembered when he first came to Hogwarts, how excited he had been over the peculiar sport. He wrote to his mum after every single match and even though what he wrote must have made no sense whatsoever, she always seemed so happy to hear his rapid, excited rambling.

His mind wondering off to his mum brought Magnus back to the scary reality of what he had promised himself to do after the match.

Talk. He was going to talk to Sam.

A part of him told him not to. A part of him found excuses, how she must be tired, how he shouldn't bring her down with his troubles after she just won a match. You can just tell her some other time, part of him said.

But Manus knew that if he listened to that part of him then he'd never speak to Sam. And he wasn't sure how much more the bottle could hold before it burst.

One by one, the Slytherin team members left the locker rooms, excited for dinner after such a great match. Mallory, Halfborn, Alex and T.J were talking among themselves and even though Magnus was standing next to them he wasn't paying any attention to what they were saying. The last Slytherin player left too, but Sam was still nowhere to be found.

"Hey, um, where is Sam?" Magnus asked. He really hoped he didn't look like he felt. Like a nervous wreck.

"She's still inside," Mallory said, gesturing at the locker rooms with her thumb. "It's her turn to tidy up the place today. We told her she didn't have to do it since she won us the match, but you know what Sam is like." She shrugged and went back to the conversation she was having with Halfborn.

"Oh, um, I'll go check on her," Magnus said as he slipped away from the group.

Inside, the locker room was, well, like any other locker room. There were white tiles everywhere and wooded benches as well as the ever present musky/sweaty smell that came with a room sweaty teenagers change clothes in. It was eerie to be in here without any of the other players (Magnus had come here with Sam once to cheer her on before a big game), especially when he only knew some of them from the locker room.

Magnus moved through the little rooms, like the boy's and girl's changing areas, the showers and this little lounge thing for before games, but Sam wasn't there. Things were clean and tidy so she must have already finished with this.

He moved deeper inside the locker room. His heartbeat was getting faster and faster and his flight instinct was going crazy. Dread settled in his throat like heavy, gooey slime and it wouldn't go away no matter how hard he tried to swallow it down.

He reached an open door with a sign on it that read "Sports equipment". He heard moving around and rattling from inside and, with the eagerness of a man heading to his execution, stepped inside.

Sam was on top of a stool, putting away some spare Quidditch things Magnus didn't know the name of. Her back was to him and she hadn't noticed him yet. If his flight instinct was going crazy before, now it had gone completely haywire. He bit his lip anxiously. He felt so frightened, like it was his first day of school again and he both wanted and was afraid of going. He was just a scared little child that wanted his mummy, even if he knew she couldn't be here to tell him everything was fine.

Yet, scared or not, Magnus took a step closer and made himself known.

"Um, Sam?"

She turned around to look at him. He green hijab, now pulling around her neck, rustled as she moved. "Oh, Magnus. What are you doing here?"

"I, uh…" Deep breath. "I need to talk to you."

Maybe it was the tone in his voice, maybe it was that he held himself like a frightened rabbit, maybe it was that nothing good ever came out of "I need to talk to you". Whatever the reason, Sam's carefree expression disappeared completely.

"What's wrong?" She asked as she moved closer to him. Her brows were furrowed together, creating a wrinkle between them like every time she was worried about something.

"It's- "his voice broke, "it's about my mum."

The wrinkle became even deeper. Sam's arms were held in front of her body, like she wanted to reach out to Magnus but she was afraid he'd crack if she touched him. He felt like he would.

"What you said. B-back at Valhalla. She's not sick." Another deep breath. And another. They came out shaky, shivering, like leaves in the wind.

"She's dead."

Sam didn't talk. She didn't gasp or anything like that. She stayed quiet, so quiet it was like Magnus was on his own. Even if she wasn't standing next to him, he wouldn't have noticed. His eyes were glued to the ground, to a dirty spot in the floor that was getting blurrier every second.

When Sam finally talked, it was quiet and breathless, as though she couldn't even begin to phantom what she was hearing. "When?"

"T-this summer," Magnus continued. The cork was off the bottle and he couldn't put it back even if he wanted to. "We- we were going to go camping the next day. I had gone to bed early so I wouldn't be tired and- and- When I woke up, when mum woke me up, there-there was smoke. Smoke and-and heat and" a sob tore its way out of his throat, "Mum- she told me to get up and-and we ran to the door but then part of the ceiling collapsed."

Magnus hadn't realized it, too deep in his memories, but Sam had led him to the stool she had been using and sat him down. She rubbed his back but all it did was remind Magnus of his mum doing the same when he cried and his sobs came harder.

"We ran for the fire escape. We-we were almost there when-" Magnus felt like he was going to throw up. "The ceiling collapse again. On-on mum."

A small gasp came from Sam but Magnus kept going.

It was like he was there again. Their small apartment, the place where Magnus had made so many happy memories, turned into a fiery inferno. Smoke and heat and flames everywhere and Magnus was scared, so scared. His tears dried on his cheeks from the heat and his mum held his hand, telling him it was going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay. They would get out of there.

They didn't. He did.

"S-she was trapped and-and I tried to get her out but-" Another sob tore his body in half. "I wasn't s-strong enough. She-she told me to run. She t-told me she'd be right b-behind me. I-I grabbed my b-backpack a-and jumped out the window. I la-landed in the ga-garbage bin and I-I looked up e-expecting her to come- but-"

It hurts. Stop. It hurts.

"The-the window ex-exploded."

Please stop. Stop, please. It hurts.

"She didn't come out."

Sam was holding him close, hugging him. Her body shook with silent sobs and Magnus felt her tears soak the back of his shirt. They stayed like that, hugging, crying rivers, oceans. Sam didn't speak. No 'I'm sorry', no nothing. Sam knew what it was like to lose your mother. She knew that 'I'm sorry's felt like empty words.

She knew there was nothing she could do right now except holding Magnus as he cried his heart out.

Magnus wasn't sure how long he was crying. It could have been a few minutes or it could have been days and he wouldn't have noticed the difference. He cried and cried, leaving wet trails down his cheeks, and he didn't even know he had this many tears in him.

Magnus was crying, still crying, when his friends appeared on the door. Whatever they were going to say –about where Magnus and Sam were this whole time, about missing dinner if they didn't hurry up- died in their throats when they saw their two friends close together, crying like it was the end of the world.

Alex wasn't hesitant to touch Magnus, not like Sam had been. Then again, he was completely wrecked now. There was nothing for her to break.

First it was Alex, then T.J, Mallory and Halfborn. They rushed forward, not a word spoken, and hugged Magnus and Sam. They didn't know what was happening, and they didn't really need too. What they knew was that their friend was a crying mess and maybe, just maybe they could put all the broken pieces of him back together if they hugged him hard enough.

Magnus thought of what people always said when you couldn't move on from a loved one's death. How they wouldn't want you trapped in the past, how they would want you to move on. He wondered if his mother was somewhere out there, anywhere, watching Magnus happily, glad he made the first step.

He liked the idea she was.

Magnus stayed there, crying in the smelly Quidditch storage room as his friends and his mother's memory held him close.

Is it weird I like writing people crying so much?