I hope you're ready for more 11 year olds suffering.


Arthur felt icky.

It was a rainy Tuesday, the mood was collectively a bit calmer than before, and Lukas came in class late and without his book.

Arthur knew why- Well, more like had a hunch to why Lukas was late. It didn't help his mood, he was feeling down, and lost, and un-certain of what he can- or even should do about this.

Classes were bothersome, the food wasn't that good, and Arthur couldn't properly focus on any of it. When the classes of the day were over, it was like it hadn't even started.

Arthur had been in thought all day, trying to figure himself out.

All of those questions he had been pushing aside all month were finally flooding to the front of his mind. Things like "Why am I even doing all this?" and "Why do I want Lukas to talk to me?"

He did quickly realize he wasn't sure where he ever could find answers to any of his questions, but no-shame in trying.

He was walking to the Hospital wing, he didn't want to have Professor Snape angry on top of all of his other issues.

He knocked on the door, he wasn't sure how he was supposed to act. Knocking was something he had been taught as a universally polite thing, so that's what he tried.

Madam Pomfrey opened the door. She looked somewhat bothered, but not exactly angry. "Hm?"

"Professor Snape asked me to come get checked." Arthur explained, he only then realized the nervous sting in his chest. What if Pomfrey could find out he used dark arts?

"Hm.. Yes I think he did mention that to me in the staff meeting." Pomfrey moved from in front of the door. "Please do come in."

Arthur did as asked. The Hospital wing seemed quite empty, only one other student seemed to be there. They were knocked out though.

He wasn't given much time to wonder about it, since Pomfrey escorted him to one of the beds and told him to sit down.

Arthur sat down, and Pomfrey grabbed a chair and sat next to him. She seemed somewhat serious, but also kind. It was a strange sight.

"So, what happened?"

Arthur tensed a little. "Oh, well, I was just very tired."

"I doubt someone like Snape would send anyone here just because they were tired." She shook her head a bit. "Please go into more detail."

"Well, I was having a headache, and everything felt heavy." He explained as well as he could, without giving away anything too big. "Then I got up to go to bed, and then Andrew grapped my arm, and it hurt."

"He touched you, and it hurt?"

"Yes."

"Did that happen with anyone other than him?"

"No, everyone else was totally fine." Arthur explained, he could feel his voice shift a bit into hard to take seriously territory.

"I see." She nodded. "From what I could figure out, the issue wasn't you brother though."

"Then what?"

"Well it could be that potion fumes got into your head, or you might have eaten something without washing your hands." Pomfrey said as she got up from the chair. "Let me grab my wand and we can look into it a bit more."

"Oh- Alright." So far so good, Arthur mused to himself. Pomfrey's wand could possibly turn into a problem, though.

She came back and sat next to him.

Surprisingly she didn't instantly cast a spell or anything, she just asked Arthur to take off his robe.

Once Arthur was robeless and got to showcase his amazing grey vest, Pomfrey proceeded.

She asked Arthur if she could see his hand. Arthur obliged, lifting his wand hand for her. She looked at it for a moment, and seemingly casted a spell wordlessly.

Arthur's hand glowed a bit, but Pomfrey shook her head. "Which hand did Andrew touch?"

"My left hand, I think?"

"May I see that one as well?"

Arthur nodded, and lifted his left hand to be held by Pomfrey. She did the same routine, but this time it wasn't just a slight glow.

The yellow green glow lacked in certain parts, where instead the colour was red. Once the glow faded, Arthur had a burnt mark he didn't have before. It was shaped like a hand grapping onto his, it must have been from Andrew.

"How peculiar." She squinted her eyes a bit. "It's rarely that bright of a red."

"What does it mean?"

"Well it must have hurt quite a bit."

"Well, it did."

Pomfrey took her wand in her hand again, but didn't yet proceed. "How would you describe how it felt?"

"It was like a strong sting." Arthur shrugged, he was not giving the pain the proper description at all. He didn't even want to try to remember the pain, as it only excited as a black hole in his mind. Which Arthur found strange, you would think a pain like that wouldn't be so easily forgotten.

"Strong, for certain." She flicked her wand, and nothing happened.

"Madam?"

"Hm." She flicked it again, but once again nothing happened.

"Is something wrong?"

"I have to be honest." She sighed. "I have no clue what happened to your hand."

"Oh- That's ..horrible." Arthur sounded like a horrible actor.

"..Yes, it is certainly horrible." She didn't look amused. "I will hav-"

Abruptly, someone knocked on the door.

"I will have to explain later." She looked bothered once again. Pomfrey got up and strode to the door, and unlocked it.

"Can you fix it, now?!" A very frustrated squeak came from in front of Pomfrey, Arthur felt like the voice was familiar, but felt a bit un-sure of who it belonged to.

"No, we've still not figured out what's blocking your magic."

"Well hurry it up!" Then it clicked, it must have been Malfoy.

"We're doing it as fast as we can-"

"Doesn't seem like it." Yeah it had to be Malfoy.

"Forgive me, but there's nothing we can do about it right now."

"Ugh, fine, whatever." He groaned. "Just hurry it up."

"I'll see what I can do." She said, and closed the door again.

After a bit, she returned to Arthur, looking like the encounter would have never happened. "Sorry for the interruption."

"It's fine." Arthur was very intrigued by the whole encounter if he was honest, so it wasn't that Malfoy just sucked at magic- It really was something blocking his magic, or someone.

"Anyways," Pomfrey continued, "I will have to ask you to come by again later, when I am more prepared for a bigger examination."

"Uh- I really don't think that's necessary."

"Are you sure?"

"I have a choice?"

"Well, as long as it doesn't happen again we can ignore it."

"Really?"

"There are a lot of things that happen in Hogwarts that are hard to explain. If we deeply look into all of them many people will be left un-treated." She sighed. "It is not a good system in my opinion, but I can't force people into anything."

"I see." Arthur begun putting his robe back on. "When will the burn scar go away?"

"It should be back to normal by morning." Pomfrey got up. "If anything strange happens please come back, it can be something big."

"I'll keep it in mind." Arthur got up as well. "Can I get a paper note to give to Professor Snape?"

Pomfrey shook her head:" I'll tell him later."

"Oh- Okay." Arthur left the room.

As he was walking to the common room, he noticed many of his classmates running wildy past him. They were celebrating that it was raining, seemingly excitedly running into the cold rain.

When Arthur was younger he and his brothers would jump in puddles, even Owen wanted to. He felt old for some reason.

"Arthur!" Mike(, possibly, as Arthur was still unsure what that kid's name was.) shouted to him from the end of the group.

"Oh- Uh, what is it?"

"Do you wanna come play with us?"

"Why?"

"Why?" He tilts his head. "Who cares why? It's fun!"

Arthur felt a flush of emotion. "..Oh yeah, who cares." He nods to himself.

"..So." Mike tilts his head, clearly confused by him. "You coming or what?"

"I think I might later, not sure." He shook his head.

"Okay then?" Mike ran off afterwards.

Arthur turned back to return to his track towards the common room.

"Who cares why?" Resounded in his head, how peculiar. Did he really need to completely understand his reasoning, if he knew it was wrong? He wasn't sure if that was truly the best conclusion, or even right, but it was an idea.

He walked within the common room, and proceeded towards his sofa, only to find it taken. Someone else had sat on his sofa, and was doing homework. Arthur was quite annoyed by this, but if that's what they wanted then he might as well go to his room.

And so, Arthur sat on his bed. He did his homework, and then decided he should really start seeing what he was going to do with that hairclip of misery in his pocket.

Once he reached for it, he found a crumbled old letter with it. He had completely forgotten he was supposed to write to his father. "Well, I've been busy." He thought to himself and placed it right back into the pocket.

He got the hairclip out with his rope sleeve covering his skin. As he tried to look at it a bit more, he soon found it hard to work with sleeves.

Arthur opened his travel trunk and put on his mittens that his grandma had knitted for him, they were soft and nice.

He preceded to grap a possibly dangerous dark magic item with them, for some reason it seemed to shake slightly in his arms.

With the hairclip in hand, his dark arts book on his lap, and a nice warm bed underneath him, he could properly analyse the item.

Arthur shifted through the pages, looking through the charms it had listed. Page after page it was mostly nothing similar, and it was getting repetive quickly.

Then one charm caught his eye. It was a very simple charm, just Ostendente but placed within an item. It didn't let one see magic as bright light, but it did make the hairclip react to specified "colour" of magic. If it would find that specified magic, it would vibrate slightly.

Arthur turned his gaze towards the hairclip in his mitten, it was still shaking slightly. Did Arthur have that colour of magic? What colour was Lukas even looking for?

He could only theorize, but the possibility of him searching for dark magic seemed a bit obvious-especially since Lukas didn't seem to have checked his hairclip in any other situation than the one when he was enveloped in it.

Arthur placed the Hairclip back into his pocket, shut the book, and fell on his back on the bed.

He knew what the hairclip was now, what next? Would he just face Lukas and say "Hey I stole stuff from you, be my friend." That would never work.

He closed his eyes, and rested there in silence. He heard talking through the walls, but it was too muffled to bother him.

"Who cares why?" He thought to himself, Arthur felt like it was important. Sadly he had no idea of why so.

Lukas would probably care why as much as Arthur did, at least Arthur would freak out about someone stealing his stuff.

The squinted his eyes, and realized something. Lukas probably wouldn't care. Arthur had stolen from him that was it. No matter how much he would apologise, or explain his reasoning, no-one would trust anyone after that.

He couldn't even keep it a secret. That would mean he would lie to Lukas, not that he would let him talk to him.

He inhaled inaudibly, Arthur was frustrated.

Somehow though- As the night went on, he got a plan.

Lukas waited for the dark stones of the Dungeon wall to move aside, it was late once again. The nightly sessions had started to slowly take a toll on him, but it wasn't like he had a choice.

Not that Lukas could sleep even if he tried. Someone had stolen his hairclip, and he had a small hunch on who it could be- Which didn't help. He felt stressed out, lost and confused.

Not that it was anything new to him.

When the wall closed back up behind him, he had already arrived to the Common room entrance. Even if he wasn't going to be able to relax, he had to keep the fantasy of being a normal student who spent his nights in the common room up.

The wall opened upon the correct password being said, and Lukas walked in.

The common room was quiet, but Lukas had stumbled upon an un-wanted person too many times there. He decided to be careful, and looked around the corner before walking through.

To not much surprise, Arthur was there. He was sitting politely on that weird sofa of his, tapping his fingers on a book cover.

It was more than obvious that he was nervous- Lukas was good with these things.

Lukas took a deep breath, he felt uncomfortable, somewhat tense. He didn't want to show Arthur any of this, and so he straightened his back, and showcased his distaste on his face.

With his book in the other hand and his wand in the other- Lukas walked to the main part of the common room.

The first few steps went well, but then he realized something discomforting. Arthur was staring at him. Lukas decided to ignore this, as difficult as it was.

He progressed almost past Arthur- but of course the boy would want him to suffer. "Wait- Lukas, I want to talk."

Lukas stood silent, he couldn't walk.

"I know you don't want to, but I really need to get this out."

Lukas turned to look at Arthur. He could only hope his face showed more strength than he was feeling. "Did you forget what I said?"

He seemed to breathe in, the whole situation seemed as heavy to Arthur as it was to Lukas. "That's why I need to talk to you." He started digging his pocket.

In the awkward silence, Arthur pulled out a crushed piece of papyrus. That didn't seem to help his nervousness. After pushing it back in, Arthur finally pulled a shiny piece of metal with his sleeve.

Lukas couldn't hold back the actual rush of emotions he was feeling. Anger, fear, confusion and full on anxiety. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, even when he had predicted it.

"Here." He held his hand out.

"What did you do to it?" Lukas said, his voice was stern and accusatory.

"What- Nothing." Arthur seemed to not have expected Lukas reaction. "I didn't do anything to it."

Lukas lifted his wand, with a scarily accurate flick he made the hairclip float. Wingarium Leviosa was something very simple for him, Arthur seemed impressed.

Lukas dropped the hairclip between his book's pages, and slammed the covers. He wasn't impressed in the slightest.

Afterwards Lukas turned around to leave.

Arthur got up from the chair, halting Lukas instantly. "Look, just hear me out."

Lukas stayed silent. God, was that guy ever going to give up? Didn't he make it obvious enough that he wanted to be alone?

"I'm not that smart. "Arthur said, he sounded weirdly emotional. Lukas wanted to say 'Yup' but it felt wrong.

"When I came to Hogwarts, I wanted to be the greatest wizard that has ever existed." He kept on babbling. "I knew it was an impossible goal, but I couldn't face reality."

Lukas gripped his wand a little tighter, he was so confused. Why was this guy still talking to him- Couldn't he just leave him alone?

"And I kept pushing and pushing, telling myself I didn't need anyone." Arthur kept explaining pointless things. "…But I'm just a stupid kid." Arthur's voice cracked, but he kept pushing on.

"I don't know what I'm doing, it's stupid reckless shit."

Lukas had trouble figuring out how to stand, or where to put his hands. He wasn't feeling that great, he had never been good in conformations.

"I don't know if you've experience anything similar, but.." Arthur trailed off, did he not know what he was getting at?

"I want to stop lying to myself." He continued.

Lukas bit his lip. He wanted to say something, but it was as if he was being blocked- muted, even.

"And I know I did a really stupid thing, I shouldn't have stolen from you." Arthur continued, seemingly desperate for a reply. "I can't reverse what I did, but if there's anything I can do for you- Just tell me."

Lukas had to force his eyes shut to do anything, but with that he could turn his head towards Arthur.

Arthur saw an expression that looked un-satisfied, annoyed even, but it had a tint of understanding. It was strange, but it made him feel a bit less desperate.

"You used Ostendente to see people's magic, right?"

Arthur nodded.

"Did you see Vlad Popescu's?"

Arthur's eyes widened, even Lukas had noticed. "You mean the red eyed kid?"

"Him." Lukas nodded.

"Yeah, I did."

Lukas seemed interested. "Meet me in the library tomorrow after class." he gave a short order, and walked off.

Arthur had no intention to even try to stop him. There was no good in stopping Lukas.

He stood there, and watched as Lukas walked to the other areas of the common room. Arthur was left in the dark, but he was filling with a sense of success.

All month he had been struggling with achieving anything, but somehow he had finally tapped into the mystery he had been faced with. Lukas actually willingly would talk to him, even if it was just for information.

Arthur sighed in relief, he had been more nervous than word could describe. He felt sweaty and gross, but triumphant.

He had actually done something.


ABOUT THE POPESCU THING... Romania has quite an incredible amount of weird fanon surronding him, and I've noticed from multiple Romanians I've met that most of them don't really enjoy Romania's character and find his human name either offensive or hilariously bad.

Using his fanon human name feels a bit conflicting to me, but I don't trust myself enough to really decide on another name (and am not in contact with those before mentioned romanians).

The story itself will tackle why someone would name their kid Vlad of all things, but you'll all just have to work with Popescu. I doubt it'll bother too many people

too much? Hh

More notes after the next chapter. Besides I prefer letting the fic speak for itself on most things.