Challenge Block
Stacked With: Hogwarts; BAON; FPC; T3; SN
Individual Challenges: In a Flash (Y); Click Bait It; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux; New Fandom Smell (Y)
Representations: Manfred Bloor; Holly (OC); Controlled Manfred
Bonus Challenges: Found Family; Second Verse (Not a Lamp)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: Terse; Ameliorate
Prompts: I Can Hear the Bells - Hairspray (auction); Hypnotic (365 words); Coffee Shop (Insane Prompts)
Word count: 623
Fandom: Charlie Bone
Note: Manfred is probably OoC, I haven't read Charlie Bone in ages.

A small tinkle of bells sounded as Holly pushed open the door to the café and let a couple walk out as they giggled with each other. She smiled after them before pressing into the small building and collapsing into the chair that had been reserved for her. Manfred didn't look up from his book and Holly didn't expect him to.

Instead, she lifted the cup of peppermint mocha that was sitting in front of her and sipped it. There was a blueberry muffin also waiting for her and she started eating that as she waited for Manfred to reach the end of either the paragraph or the chapter he was reading. As she waited, she gazed around the small café.

Every so often, she would see a combination of people and hear the chiming of bells. There were three girls all laughing happily who gave out loud gongs similar to church bells. A girl and a boy leaning against each other sounded like the bells often used for Santa's sleigh in media. Another trio of mixed gender had her hearing small chimes that overlaid each other in perfect harmony.

Manfred sighed as he placed down his book and picked up his cup of tea. His coal-black eyes bore into her and she smiled at her friend. There was no hypnotic haze over her mind as she met his gaze, Manfred had never used his endowment on her, and she had promised to never tell him if her own acted up around him.

"Okay?" Manfred asked finally.

Holly shrugged. "Still get the headaches, but not as much as before. If I go out during the quieter periods, I can manage a lot better."

"You can come back to Bloor's if you want to, I can tell my father to let you back in."

"I'll be fine, Manfred." Holly smiled as she shook her head. Her friend was not the nicest person, but he always tried to look after her and Bloor's was where she had gained as much control as she had.

All of the endowed children went to Bloor's Academy, and Holly had been no different. Once her aunt had realised that the bells Holly kept telling her about meant something, she had sent Holly to Bloor's for the rest of her school years. Manfred had come into her life later, though she had seen him around the school.

He had the ability to hypnotise people who looked in his eyes and outwardly he had no compunctions about using it for even the smallest of things. Holly had found him curled up on the school's roof one day, staring blankly out at the sky and had sat down next to him, too tired and a pounding headache making her not care that the feared Manfred Bloor was sitting at her spot.

They had sat together for a few hours, not speaking that first time. Then it had happened again, and then again, and eventually they started talking. Ever since then, they had looked out for each other. Manfred still lived at Bloor's, but Holly had left the school a year ago. The café was where they met on the weekends now that they didn't see each other during the week.

"All good your end?"

Manfred grimaced and Holly pushed the raspberry and white chocolate muffin that was sitting on the table closer to him. He picked at it as he gathered his thoughts. Holly braced herself to hear what her friend had been forced into this time. Manfred picking at his favourite food meant it had been a bad week. But just as he was there for her during her bad weeks, she was there for him and nothing would change that.