Coloring
Hogwarts students came back to the news of Alex's death. His friends had already been owled, but there were people who you could tell just found out. The school was probably the quietest it had ever been. The only sound that you could hear was the occasional sob from a student. Everyone had loved Alex; he was kind, funny, and a true friend to many people.
The teachers had no clue what to do. They weren't sure whether or not to try to maintain a regular class or just let them talk amongst themselves. Either way someone would lose. A death of a student like this had never happened before. What do you say and do to a hysterical student or for student who is trying to be the strong on for their best friend? How do you try to comfort a student when you feel like crying yourself?
Lily, James, Sirius, and Marlene walked to Muggle Studies in silence. The room was almost eerie in silence. The empty seat stuck out like a sore thumb. The four sat down together and James instinctively put his arm around Lily. They still weren't dating but ever since Alex's death they were practically inseparable. Lily leaned in and let her tears fall down her face.
Mr. Shepard came in looking like he hadn't slept since the incident. He went to his desk and looked at the class. "Class I can't teach today. Just I can't." he stuttered. "However, I don't want you guys to sit here and mope. I found some muggle coloring pages and did a coping spell on them. You can color if you want or do something else. Just I want you guys to do something."
Everyone already knowing about muggle coloring books and crayons for young children, decided to color. The group trudges up to his desk. Once they reached there, a slight rush went through them for the first time. He had Disney movie characters, some Scooby-Doo, and School House Rock pages. They had watched all of these in class and loved them. Lily grabbed a Mulan and Ariel page, James of coarse picked up almost all of the Bambi pages, and Sirius chose Lady and the Tramp pages. Marlene shocked everyone when she chose several Scooby-Doo pages since she used to claim they were too childish for her.
The group sat back down in their seats and began to color. It seemed odd but coloring actually helped a little. It not only took their mind off what happened but it seemed to bring them back to a time of innocence and childhood where nothing bad could ever happen. They were transported into a time when the opposite gender had cooties, drama was when someone stole your crayons, and the death meant you didn't have your old dog anymore and that was the greatest pain you had ever felt. It felt as though everyone could be like a child forever but then class ended. However, coloring was like the step that they didn't know existed to accepting and moving on.