Clarke had a habit of hoarding food. It started in the second grade, and it became such a big part of his daily routine that he did it for every meal. Whether it was at school or at home, during the rare times he ate with his family, he snuck food such as bread, crackers, and any other finger food into the pockets of his clothes. The only people who had noticed it so far were his friends, whom he would sit with at lunch until they left for middle school; but that all changed once he started his first year at Hogwarts. The first person who had noticed was a 4th-year girl by the name of Alice who always sat on his right to chat with her friends. It took her four days, but by dinner of their first Friday at Hogwarts, she realized that this boy had not only snuck once or twice like she originally expected, he did it every meal.
When she went back to her room, she sat on her bed. "Guys, I think there's a problem," she announced, earning her concerned looks from the other three girls who were settling into bed.
"What?" her roommate, Jean asked raising an eyebrow. "Is it that your dumb cat ate your lipstick again? Because that's not exactly a problem."
"No… but that is a problem. Anyways you know how we sit by that group of first years?" she asked trying to get to her point.
"Yeah," Aarav, another roommate clarified, changing out of her clothes and into her nightgown before sitting beside her friend on her bed.
"I think one of them might be homesick or something," Alice informed, concern taking over her features. Her roommate Fiona laughed and threw one of her many pillows at her.
"You prat! You had us worried. Being homesick isn't exactly a problem, everyone gets homesick their first year," she declared, as she sat crisscross on her bed and began to pull her hair into a fishtail braid.
"But it could be! There's something seriously wrong, he keeps putting food in his pockets.; and I don't mean just one or two meals. Every single meal, he stuffs half of the small portion he puts on his plate into his pockets. I know it could just be that he's growing or whatever but he's so small, and I just have this awful feeling something wrong…" Alice insisted, her hands moving with her words.
"Well.. let's say something is wron-" Jean began to say before their other roommate walked in.
"What are you talking about?" Kristen asked as she walked in, a pink towel wrapped around his head.
"Alice is worried about a little first-year boy," Fiona piped up.
"Hey Kristen, isn't your little brother a first year too?" Aarav questioned, an idea coming to mind.
"Yeah, but he's in Ravenclaw," Kristen answered giving the Indian girl a strange look.
"The Ravenclaws and Gryffindor first years have Charms together don't they? So, there's a chance that Niko knows this first year," Aarav pointed out.
"Do you know his name?" Jean asked looking back at Alice.
"It's… Clarke, I think?" Alice replied.
"Okay, so how about we do this, Kristen, can you talk to your brother tomorrow and see if he knows this "mysterious" first year?" Jean queried. Kristen nodded.
"What should we do in the meantime?" Fiona wondered holding her arms in a bid for Alice to throw back her pillow. Alice threw it back at her and laughed when the redhead fell back on her bed.
"In the meantime, we sleep. We'll come up with a plan at breakfast, but we need to get there earlier so we can talk without worrying about the first years hearing us. I don't want to explain why we're chatting about one of their friends eating habits," Aarav responded, climbing into her bed and under her covers. One by one, the girls turned off their lamps and followed the other girl into slumber.
The next morning, Kristen confronted her younger brother and asked him about the boy in her house. From him, she learned that they met at the library and that Clarke had some very interesting book suggestions. She also discovered that Clarke had a lot of food hoarded in his room. Afterward, she went to back to the Gryffindor table and sat down with her friends to relay the information to them. From there, the girls worked out a plan on how to confront the little boy. While there had been thoughts of cornering him and trying to talk to him; in the end, they decided that maybe only two of them should talk to him about it. By the time most of the kids came down for breakfast, including Clarke and his roommates, they came up with the solution that Alice and Jean should be the ones to talk to him and that they only could do it after breakfast to avoid a scene.
After the extremely slow breakfast, the pair followed the boy out of the Great Hall and pulled him into an empty classroom. "W-Who..?!" Clarke stuttered, shrinking back as his mind went to the darkest reasons for why these random girls would pull him away from his friends.
"Hey, hey don't be scared… I don't think you know me but I'm Alice. My friends and I sit by you and your friends. I noticed you don't eat all your food," Alice explained, making Clarke gave her a shocked and then a scared look.
"We just want to know why" Jean commented.
"I just like making sure I have food.." Clarke mumbled, hoping that would be enough of an explanation.
"But why?" Jean pushed. Clarke shrunk back from him and bit his bottom lip nervously.
"I just do…" he squeaked. Realizing that this child was frightened, Alice kneeled down beside him.
"Look, we don't mean to scare you. We just… I just want to let you know that you don't have to keep hiding food. There will always be food. No matter what.." she assured him, taking his hands not expecting him to jump back in fright. Keeping from grabbing his hands again, she continued. "You know, I could show you the kitchen if you want and introduce you to one of the house elves there, I'm sure they would love to make your food if you need it," she proposed with a grin.
"W-Would... W-Would you really..?" Clarke rasped.
"Of course! If you ever want me to show you, just ask me at one of the meals. We should get to class… but I hope we eased some of your concerns!" Alice shouted as she ran off.
"Bye kid," Jean said before following her friend away from the boy and to class.
Confused and relieved, Clarke left the classroom and tried to find his way back to his friends. It didn't become long until he began to panic, now terrified he would be late to class. However, just as he was about to have a panic attack; Clarke and the rest of his roommates showed up. Chris instantly became relieved when Clarke came into view and pulled him into a hug. "I was worried, let's get to class okay?" he told him, leading him and the rest of his roommates to their Potions lesson.