#I thought about him going ham in an all-out magic spree but... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

flyingkiki · 4 years

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Hi, nice to meet you

I AM BACK! I am sorry that it took a while for me to get back to writing. I’ve been struggling a bit at home and it’s been tough. But, I’ve been trying to write, and that kind of helped me get through some rough patches.

THANK YOU FOR BEING SO PATIENT AND KIND. You guys are the best. As promised, I’ve been taking prompts and trying to write out some of your ideas. I enjoyed writing this prompt and I hope you like this just as much as I enjoyed writing this.

~~~

This was the last time the Titans trusted Beast Boy (Changeling?) with the responsibility of coordination a mission, Raven thought darkly.

He had one fucking job. She frowned and her glowing hand twitched as she healed Red Robin’s shoulder which she moments ago nearly accidentally blew off – it was one mangled hot mess.The masked man groaned, head in her lap, and his hand twitched as the muscle slowly restored in his shoulder.

Purple eyes cast a worried glance at the barely awake hero while keeping high alert as the noise of distant gunfire ripped through the air. She cast a warry glance at the bolted laboratory doors, reinforced by a couple of tables, chairs, and her magic. Hopefully Dr. Light would not decide to blast his way through the doors just yet. If he did, she might just blow his fucking head off.

Nightwing had sent her to Gotham City to follow Dr. Light’s and his recent crime spree in the city. He somehow had gotten hold of kryptonium and supercharged his powers. Dick had placed Gar in charge of coordination and logistics, ensuring that local law enforcement (primarily Batman) were informed of their mission.

Placing Beast Boy in charge of mission coordination was probably their first mistake. Raven was going to kill Dick, and Gar, once she got back to Jump for all the trouble.

But, Dick might just kill her if his brother dies because of blood loss. If that happened, Raven was sure she’d haunt Gar forever and possess him to turn into a fucking cat and jump off Titan Tower nine times.

Their second mistake was probably Raven not checking in with Batman once she arrived. But she assumed the coordination work was done – on certain degree, she trusted Beast Boy’s work. Which, was also her third mistake.

Though, there was little she could have done anyway. Considering the moment she arrived in Gotham shit hit the fan and Dr. Light decided to infiltrate Star Labs and terrorize staff, and steal kryptonite and whatever supercharged chemicals that there we stored in the West Gotham facility.

Just as she released a ball of black energy at Dr. Light as he tried to send a charged strike of lighting into the laboratory that could have killed all personnel in the room, a black and red mass appeared out of nowhere vaulting into her line of fire.

From there everything just went downhill.

Everything was a blur from there. Red Robin got hit squarely in the shoulder, her strike ripping through flesh. She acted quickly and used her soul self to grab is injured body towards her and used her other hand to send a blast towards Dr. Light. Somehow, in the heat of the moment, she was able to save all 10 personnel in the laboratory and phase Dr. Light a couple of floors up the building. She deserved a promotion, really.

She and Red Robin had huddled behind an upturned lab desk and she had quickly set to work. She did not want Dick up her ass for accidentally killing his brother.

Raven watched as Red Robin regained movement in his left shoulder as his hand twitched. She mentally sighed in relief and poured a last ounce of energy in restoring all the nerves in his shoulder. She felt lightheaded already from all the exertion.

“Ugh,”

She watched as Red Robin blinked and groaned. His black cowl painfully dug into her thighs which were covered in his blood. She could feel his discomfort and pain push into her. As the last bits of his shoulder were restored, she felt the pain lift and she dropped her hand.

“You pack a punch,” she heard him mumble in amusement into her thigh.

“I can destroy a dimension easily.”

Raven blinked through the sweat that had accumulated on her face and she was surprised at how lightly Red Robin had taken the whole situation. She sighed loudly and watched as he pulled himself out of her lap and they both collapsed against the upturned tables around them. Raven shakily ran a hand through her hair, and grimaced as Red Robin’s blood smeared her hair in the process. Fuck her life.

“Sorry about that,” Raven whispered, taking deep breathes and watching Red Robin carefully. She could feel that he was no longer in pain but rather on high alert, his alarmed emotions pressing against her own forcefully.

“Warn me next time,” Red Robin grumbled, a small frown and amused smile playing on his lips. He tested his shoulder and found nothing wrong with him. “Well, at least you healed some of the other issues I’ve been having with this shoulder. Good as new,”

Raven grimaced and felt faint. “I’m going to fucking kill Beast Boy,”

Red Robin grinned. He stuck out his hand. “Red Robin.”

Raven raised an eyebrow. She took his hand and shook it. “Raven.”

“Nice to meet you.” The corner of his lips quirked. “I wish circumstances would have been different.”

Raven dropped her hand into her bloody lap. “Beast Boy was in charge of coordinating the mission. He should have coordinated with you and Batman.” She grimaced. “Dick made the call.”

Low rumbling ripped through the building. They both looked up and frowned. Looking at each other, they slowly moved to stand. Raven stumbled as a dizzy spell hit her after using so much energy to health Red Robin. His hand reached out and steadied her.

“You okay?”

“You just take the lead. It took too much energy to heal your shoulder.”

Red Robin nodded. He cast a quick glance at the sealed laboratory door before sending her a wry smile. “Really nice to meet you though. Dick talks a lot about you and the team. Not really the best circumstance for our first meeting, though, honestly.”

Raven let out a little huff of air. “The feeling is mutual.”

Red Robin and Raven eventually caught Dr. Light had him locked up in Arkham. Once Raven got back home to the Tower, suffice to say Beast Boy was never placed to handle mission coordination work again.

~~~

The second time Raven bumped into Red Robin was, again, purely by accident. Thankfully, no limbs were blown off this time.

“I didn’t take you for a children’s literature kind of girl, Rachel”

Raven looked up from her crouched position by the bookshelf and stared up at the longhaired man leaning against a brightly colored bookshelf filled with nursery rhymes books. She raised an eyebrow, trying to remember who the man was and read his aura quickly. He looked amused and annoyingly handsome in a black business suit. Did all the Wayne children have to look this good?

“Tim,” Raven held a copy of Green Eggs and Ham in her hand. Of course Tim Drake knew who she was – knowing him, he had probably read and memorized all their files.

Tim smiled as she recognized him and gave a little wave with his hand in acknowledgement. While she knew who he was, it was a bit strange to Raven to see Red Robin out of his, well, Red Robin costume. She rarely saw superheroes, outside of the Titans and Batman, in their real identities. Seeing Red Robin, Tim Drake, in a business suit in front of her was a bit odd.

“Just picking up a book for Teether,” she said, pushing herself up into a standing position. Melvin, Timmy, and Teether were in town. She eyed him expectantly. “What brings you to Jump?”

Tim shrugged and smoothly stuffed his hands into his black pants. “Bruce had me check on one of our offices here in the city.”

“Explains the suit,” Raven sent him a blank side glance and began walking out of the Children’s Section. “But doesn’t explain why you’re in this bookstore?”

Tim followed her to the cash register. “I saw you walk into the store just as I stepped out of the office. Jump’s Wayne Enterprises office is just across the street,” he said, pointing at the huge building they could see through the small window by the cash register.

“Oh,” Raven blinked, feeling just a little ashamed at her lack of situational awareness. Ignoring Tim momentarily, she turned to the store owner and payed for the little book. She silently wondered why he had followed her into the store. Didn’t he have better things to do than hover next to her? Like, maybe bother his brother or something?

Raven tucked her new purchase under her arm and watched Tim fiddle with a few Titans pencils that were on display by the counter. Catching his attention, he grinned and showed her a badly drawn Raven replica printed on the small pencil. She frowned and shook her head. “No.”

Tim chuckled and dropped the pencil back into the display case. He followed Raven out of the store. “Where is a good place to grab coffee here?”

Raven was just about to walk home and she eyed Tim curiously. “Aren’t you rich enough to own a phone and Google “Best coffee in Jump City?” She noted a few people had stopped across the street of them and where openly gawking at Tim – where all the Wayne kids this popular?

Tim snorted. “True,” he fished out his phone from his pocket. After a few quick taps and briefly glancing at a mildly amused Raven, a couple of cafés came up from his search. “Tightrope?”

Raven titled her head a just a little bit. “It’s a good place, they source really good beans.” She paused and looked at her phone to check the time. “It gets a bit crowded at this hour though.”

She adjusted the book under her arm and pointed in the opposite direction of the Titan’s Tower. “There’s a small café just down the road. The wife of the owner of this bookstore runs it. They make pretty good coffee and have a good tea selection. They’re cheesecakes are great too.”

Tim smiled and stuffed his phone into his pocket. “See? Way better info than a Google search.”

Raven rolled her eyes. “Well,” she began. “It was nice seeing you but I need to go home and make sure that Garfield has not burned down the tower,”

Tim looked strangely confused. “You don’t want to join me for coffee?”

She sent him a surprised look. “Coffee?”

Tim scratched his head sheepishly. “Yeah. Sorry, I thought that was clear.”

“You asked for directions.” She deadpanned. She stared at the amused Tim, momentarily studying his aura and taking in the gentle friendly push of emotions from him. Well, she figured it would be okay to spend some time with Red Robin – at least he wasn’t covered in blood this time. And she’d be away from Garfield for just a few more hours.

“Fine.”

Tim smiled. “Great, let’s go.”

“How’s the shoulder?” Raven asked while they were walking down the street.

“It’s the best. Thanks again, really.” Tim demonstrated by rotating his shoulder. Raven briefly noticed his bicep contract from the movement. She blinked. Oh.

“I blew off your shoulder,” Raven said, sending him a wry look. “Let’s not do that again.”

They stopped by the entrance of the small café. From the shop’s window, it was pretty empty just as Raven predicted. Tim opened the door for them. “Well, at least I know you’re around to fix my shoulder in case that happens again.”

~~~

Raven was working in the briefing room that evening. She had to re-sort most of the files Gar had sorted a week ago. He did a shit job at sorting old case files. It was impossible for them to find anything in this mess. She faintly wondered why they even considered giving Gar the job. Had they not learned at all?

“You’re not Dick.”

Raven looked up from her laptop and stared at the large screen in front of her. “For a great detective, you’re not really doing a good job right now. I’m sorely disappointed.”

Red Robin laughed. “Sorry, I thought Dick was already here.”

Raven looked at the unmasked man. “I’ll go get him.”

Red Robin shook his head. “Don’t bother. I don’t mind waiting a bit.”

She paused at closing her laptop and stared at the unmasked Red Robin. While it was strange to see Tim Drake outside of his Red Robin uniform a few weeks ago, it was just as stranger to see Red Robin, unmasked, with Tim Drake looking back at her. But she had to admit – he looked good unmasked.

“Err, okay.” She reopened her laptop and hit a few keys. “How is your shoulder?”

“Never been better.” Tim shrugged the shoulder in question with an amused smile. “What are you working on?”

Raven paused. “Sorting through some old case files Garfield messed up sorting.”

“Sounds exciting.”

Raven rolled her eyes. “Very.”

Tim chuckled. “That bad?”

“I wish I had the authority to fire Garfield.” Raven deadpanned.

Tim winced. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Can you replace Garfield?”

“Not sure if Batman would like a shapeshifting sidekick.”

Raven shrugged. “I’m not sure I’d want one either.”

Tim chuckled. A momentary silence filled the briefing room as Raven typed a few commands into her laptop. Raven looked up from the shitty report Garfield filed and stared at Tim, watching him fiddle with his phone. “I’ll just send Dick a message. He normally isn’t late – unless Melvin and the siblings are holding him up.”

Tim blinked and stopped looking down at his phone. “Right. Yeah, sorry. Thanks, Raven.”

Raven hummed and pressed a few keys on her laptop. “He’ll be here shortly.”

“Thanks, Raven.”

Raven sent him a brief look before tapping a few more keys and closing her laptop. She stood up just as she felt the familiar push of Dick’s emotions down the hallway. Gathering her laptop in her arms, she sent Tim an amused look. “You could have just sent Dick a message yourself, you know.”

Tim laughed, sheepish. “Ah.”

Raven snorted at Tim just as an unmasked Nightwing stepped into the room with a plush bunny in his hand. “Bye, Tim,” she said, not sparing the other Robin a glance and left the two Robins alone.

Dick unceremoniously plopped down in front of the computer, deposited the worn bunny into his lap, and stared up at his younger brother. He grinned as he watched Tim watch Raven leave the room.

“Eyes here, Tim.”

~~~

Contrary to popular belief, Raven did enjoy exercise. While she may not look like it, she did enjoy her time working out in the gym and going through Dick’s deadly training regime – she just liked to complain to annoy Dick most of the time.

Over the past few years, she discovered that running was an excellent way of clearing her mind. She had taken up joining a few marathons for the heck of it and clearly enjoyed completing the runs.

Adjusting her black sports bra, Raven felt the cold Boston wind nip at her exposed legs and stomach. She should have considered wearing a runner’s jacket. The Boston wind was not very forgiving. Standing somewhere in the middle of the crowd of thousands at the Boston Marathon, Raven silently surveyed the crowd and wondered how fast she could go this time around.

“I think you’re going to have a very unfair advantage at this.”

Her ponytail swished as she sharply turned around and look at the very amused expression of Tim Drake. She raised a delicate eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”

Tim shrugged. “We’re one of the sponsors.” He pointed at the WE logo printed on the banner behind her. “Also, publicity.”

Raven crossed her arms and gave Tim a challenging look. Taking in his running attire of black running shorts and the WE corporate logo on his running top, she raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you think you’re going to have an unfair advantage here?”

Tim looked around before leaning and whispering conspiringly. “I’m not the one with superpowers.”

“I do not use them!”

Tim laughed at her indignant look and waved both of his hands in peace. There was a distinct shutter noise and they caught someone taking their photo. Tying his long hair into a low ponytail, Tim waved at her. “I got to go. I’ll see you at the finish line.”

At somewhere along the 20+ kilometer stretch, Raven caught up with sight of Tim keeping a steady running pace. Normally she’d keep to herself while running, but she guessed it wouldn’t hurt to run at Tim’s pace for a bit and then beat his sorry ass. See you at the finish line my ass. Her gaze dropped to his ass for one second.

Running up to him, Raven steadily kept her running pace. She sent him a smirk when she kept running at his pace. “Hey,” she breathed.

Tim laughed. “Hey.”

Catching his eye, Raven’s lips twitched. “See you at the finish line,”

Tim lost his running pace for just a second as he chuckled and watched Raven run past him. As he watched Raven’s small form disappear into the crowd of marathoners, his lack of focus was something Batman would be grossly disappointed at.

It wasn’t an hour later until Raven saw Tim again. She had crossed the finished line a few minutes ago and was sitting on the ground catching her breath and trying to rest her sore legs. Buzzing with a huge sense of accomplishment of finishing the race under 3 hours, Raven faintly wondered how a race could feel both so painful and gratifying at the same time.

“You run fast.”

Tim unceremoniously dropped down in the spot next to her, catching his breath and stretching out his legs. He took a swig from his water bottle and sighed in relief.

Raven turned to stare at Tim as he tried to level his breathing. It should be a criminal offense to still look this good all sweaty and disheveled after running a full marathon. She was sure she looked like shit. She absently patted her disheveled hair.

“I’ve been joining marathons for a couple of years now.” Raven replied. “I like running just as much as I like flying.”

Tim made an acknowledging sound at the back of his throat while still trying to catch his breath.

“How come I’ve never seen you here before?” Raven asked, while pressing a cold water bottle to her neck. She moved a legs a little to get some feeling back into them.

“Probably because there are 30,000 other runners here?” Tim shrugged and grinned at her.

Raven hummed. “Probably.” She fiddled with the cap of her water bottle and took a swig of her water. Or probably she blew off his shoulder a few months ago and had just become more attuned with his aura, she thought.

“I never took you as a running kind of girl.”

Raven blinked and turned to Tim, eyebrows creased as she watched him curiously. “What kind of girl do you think I am?”

Tim made a face. “The non-running kind?”

She rolled her eyes. “I like running. It’s kind of like meditating. And it gives me an excuse to go for runs away from the tower and Garfield.”

Tim chuckled. “Makes sense.”

“How’s your shoulder?” Raven eyed him curiously.

Tim titled his head a little, watching her in mild amusement. “You have to stop asking me that. It’s great.”

Her lips quirked a little bit. “Tell that to my conscience.”

Tim smiled and waved her off. “Occupational hazard. It’s alright.” He grinned when she looked unconvinced and nudged her shoulder slightly with his own sweaty shoulder, much to her annoyance. “Stop worrying about it.”

Raven hummed unconvinced. “We’ll see.” She briefly surveyed the crowd around them as more runners made their way across the finish line. Deciding that it was time for her to go, she stood up and left Tim on the ground. Dick, like the grandmother that he was, would start wondering where she was if she didn’t check-in soon.

“Leaving?”

“Yeah. Your brother will have a heart attack soon if I don’t check in with him.”

“I’m pretty sure he can wait for a few more minutes,” he said while standing up next to her.

Raven made a face. “He likes to crawl up your ass when you’re late for check-ins.”

Tim chuckled and shook his head. Uncapping his water bottle, he dumped the rest of his cold water over his head in an effort to cool his body down. Raven watched as water dribbled down his face and sweaty chest. She blinked, emotions unknowingly flaring. Why does that have to look like a GQ commercial shoot?

“We should go running one of these days.”

Raven absently watched as water droplets slid down Tim’s chin. “I normally run alone.” She said. “But yeah, sure, if you’re in Jump, why not.”

“Great.” Tim smiled. He was about to say something when Raven’s watch furiously beeped loudly. Wiping some water off his neck, he sent her an amused look. “Dick?”

Raven rolled her eyes, tapping her discreet state-of-the-art Titan’s sport watch. She eyed it in slight annoyance. “Yeah.” Looking up and sending Tim an amused smile, she took a step back. She tried to ignore the curious push of emotions from Tim and clutched her water bottle tightly. “I better take this. It was nice, but strange, to bump into you, again. I’ll see you around.”

Tim nodded and offered her a small wave. “See you.”

~~~

At this point, Raven knew who he was even before she could see him. Looking up from her book, she gave him a blank stare.

“I feel like you’re following me.”

Tim laughed sheepishly and dropped into the seat next to her. He surveyed the Jump City park that was bursting from springtime colors. Draping his left arm behind the park bench, he gave Raven a crooked smile. “Maybe I am?”

There was that curious push of emotions again and Raven closed her book. There was no point really of reading anymore anyway. Something flipped inside of her. She’d be a complete idiot if she didn’t see, or feel, the interest he had shown in her over the past months. And she’d be a moron to ignore how absurdly attractive Tim Drake was and how he cast long sideway glances at her. She knew there was something brewing – but admitting that she liked that, was something completely different to her. What was she supposed to tell him anyway?

“You’re not very good at stalking.”

Well, that would work, too.

Tim made a face. “Who said I was stalking?”

“Strange for you to always find me at the right places. Sounds like a stalker to me.” She teased, picking up on his teasing aura.

Running a hand through his hair, Tim chuckled lowly. Breaking eye contact to shake away some nerves, he surveyed the park once more, before turning back to Raven. “Okay. You caught me. What if I am?”

What if he was?

Strange how after so many encounters of him oddly tip-toeing around her, and after her nearly killing him at their very first meeting (honestly that sounded like such a deal breaker), he said everything so simply. This was such an honest and simple offer that meant so many things.

Raven’s lips quirked as she searched Tim’s blue eyes. At the sight of her small smile, he responded with a wider smile. Her fingers tightened around her book. “As long as you don’t jump into my line of fire again, I guess I’d be okay with this.”

There was a warm buzz of emotions and Tim straightened next to her. She felt his arm that was draped over their bench twitch next to her shoulder. “Really? Okay.”’ He laughed. “Great.”

His blue eyes were so different from Dick’s, Raven noted. They were slightly brighter. They shone now with excitement. Raven decided she liked them.

“Go out with me.” He breathed softly. Wow, wasn’t he forward all of the sudden. “Do you want to grab dinner?”

Raven blinked and she gave him an amused look. “Now? It’s just 3 in the afternoon.”

“Oh.”

Raven laughed softly, a rare sight for Tim which made him grin, and she instead settled herself just a little bit closer to him. She felt his left hand twitch behind her shoulder and she allowed herself to nestle under the crook of his arm. It was the same limb that she blasted off just a few months ago. It was a welcoming warmth – maybe she could do this.

“Maybe we can just sit here and wait a bit. And then have dinner later.”

His arm draped behind the bench had made its way to her side, softy draping his arm across her shoulders. “Okay. Sounds like a plan.”

Raven smiled, acknowledging the curious warmth that has been bubbling inside of her for months. Sharing a smile with Tim, she agreed its sounded like this sounded like a good plan.

#timrae #tim/rae #tim/raven #tim drake/raven #Tim Drake #raven roth #timrae fanfiction #omg these bbs 😍😍

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weirdsciencecomics · 4 years

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Here are the February 2020 Marvel Comics Solicitations for all Spider-Man related comics!

VENOM #23

DONNY CATES • MARK BAGLEY (A/C)

VARIANT COVER BY SKOTTIE YOUNG

GWEN STACY VARIANT COVER BY HUMBERTO RAMOS

VENOM ISLAND COMES ALIVE!

They say there’s no rest for the wicked, and few creatures in the Marvel Universe are as wicked as CARNAGE. Face front, readers — the seeds of next year’s VENOM event are already beginning to grow…

32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

RAVENCROFT #2 (OF 5)

FRANK TIERI • ANGEL UNZUETA (A) • Cover by KYLE HOTZ

VARIANT COVER BY SKAN

Ravencroft is open for business! But with the secrets revealed in RUINS OF RAVENCROFT in the open, the Institute is more dangerous than ever. Can John Jameson right the ship before it’s too late?

32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

SYMBIOTE SPIDER-MAN: ALIEN REALITY #3 (OF 5)

PETER DAVID • GREG LAND (A/C)

VARIANT COVER BY RON LIM

VARIANT COVER BY ALEX SAVIUK

GWEN STACY VARIANT COVER BY PHIL NOTO

VARIANT COVER BY GERARDO SANDOVAL

CONNECTING CHINESE NEW YEAR VARIANT COVER (2 of 3) BY JIE YUAN

PETER PARKER: THE SPIDER SUPREME?!

After reliving one of the most horrible moments of his life, Peter Parker turns to one of his oldest allies for a magical helping hand. Don’t miss the next history-shaking adventure of Peter David and Greg Land’s landmark SYMBIOTE SPIDER-MAN Series!

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #39

NICK SPENCER • IBAN COELLO (A) • COVER BY PATRICK GLEASON

GWEN STACY VARIANT COVER BY PEPE LARRAZ

CONNECTING CHINESE NEW YEAR VARIANT COVER (3 OF 3) BY JIE YUAN

There’s a new game in town, and the ante is QUITE HIGH! Welcome to The Palace, a super-villain casino run by the classic (and under-utilized) Spidey-villain CHANCE! It’s got everything a villain could want, including betting on whether your arch-enemy is going to make it through his or her latest super-battle! Not only will this not sit well with Spidey, but it may just CRUSH him.

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #40

NICK SPENCER • IBAN COELLO (A) • COVER BY PATRICK GLEASON

GWEN STACY VARIANT COVER BY ELIZABETH TORQUE

Jonah Jameson’s new gig has proven to be nothing but trouble for Spidey. As you are well aware, JJJ doesn’t take “no” for an answer, so even if Spidey is knee-deep in a world-saving situation, JJJ will always be there to “help” him. But while Spidey is dealing with JJJ and Chance, something is brewing with Kindred and it can’t bode well for Peter.

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

SPIDER-HAM #3 (OF 5)

ZEB WELLS

WILL ROBSON (A/C)

VARIANT COVER BY DAVID NAKAYAMA

LET’S DO THE HAM WARP AGAIN!

What’s a Ham Warp? We don’t know, but this third issue of SPIDER-HAM is an interdimensional delight! Spider-Ham just can’t catch a break! First SPIDER-MAN crashes his solo adventure…and now they’re trapped in the past! Somebody’s gotta bring home the bacon!

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

SPIDER-MAN/VENOM: DOUBLE TROUBLE #4 (of 4)

MARIKO TAMAKI

GURIHIRU (A/C)

“VENOM IS A GREAT ROOMMATE AND FRIEND!” – Spider-Man

Spider-Man and Venom must finally work together to fix their situation…one that Venom TOTALLY didn’t get them into in the first place. YOU CAN’T PROVE IT WAS HIM!

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

AMAZING MARY JANE #5

Leah Williams • Carlos Gómez (A) • Cover by Humberto Ramos

VARIANT COVER BY TBA

GWEN STACY VARIANT COVER BY JAVIER RODRIGUEZ

CUT?!

All that stands between MJ and Mysterio’s ragtag crew and filming their climactic battle scene is…well, VULTURE, STEGRON, TARANTULA, KING COBRA, RHINO, and SCORPION! If this is Mary Jane’s last chance to realize her dreams, you can bet she’s going to fight like a tiger–or a spider! Will filming ever wrap? Will Mary Jane ever go home to the AMAZING SPIDER-MAN? And can Peter forgive her for her Hollywood team up?

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

GHOST-SPIDER #7

SEANAN McGUIRE • IG GUARA (A)

Cover by PAUL POPE

Gwen has it all! Two worlds, two lives, living in harmony…nothing bad could happen! …something bad is definitely about to happen. Be there when Gwen’s worlds begin to collide!

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: THE DAILY BUGLE #2 (OF 5)

MAT JOHNSON • MACK CHATER (A)

COVER BY NIKO HENRICHON

VARIANT COVER BY PASQUAL FERRY

Professors missing from Empire State University: Abductees or recruits? Skeins of Spider-Man’s web drape Lower Manhattan: Charming local color, or Department of Sanitation headache? Does anything happen in Kingpin’s city without his knowledge? The reporters of the Daily Bugle are beating pavement to answer YOUR questions.

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN #15

SALADIN AHMED • JAVIER GARRON (A/C)

GWEN STACY VARIANT COVER BY NICK BRADSHAW

INVASION AT BROOKLYN VISIONS!

Miles’ journal has gone missing–you know, the one where he wrote his private thoughts about BEING SPIDER-MAN!!! And it’s fallen into enemy hands! Does that have something to do with Miles’ high school under siege by the most monstrous goons he’s faced since CARNAGE? You’re about to see more of Brooklyn Visions than ever–but is it for the last time?

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

SPIDER-VERSE #5 (OF 6)

CHRISTOS GAGE – JUAN FERREYRA (A)

Cover by DAVE RAPOZA

SPIDER-MAN NOIR, DEAD NO MOIR?!

Miles continues his journey to save the web of life and comes face to face with Spider-Man Noir! But, wait…isn’t he dead?!

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

BLACK CAT #9

JED MACKAY • KRIS ANKA (A) • Cover by J. SCOTT CAMPBELL

GWEN STACY VARIANT COVER BY CARLOS GOMEZ

Felicia has gotten into some trouble in New York. Some may call it “inciting a war” but we aren’t here to mince words. What’s a girl to do? GO TO MADRIPOOR! That’s right, the Black Cat and her crew go to Madripoor to steal the next object on their list. No problem, just another artifact that is in the private collection of someone named… where’d I put that note… oh, here. Someone named “Patch.” Uh-oh. Patch is Wolverine. BLACK CAT IS STEALING FROM WOLVERINE?! All this and guest-artist KRIS ANKA (UNCANNY X-MEN, RUNAWAYS) is joining the book for two issues!

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

MORBIUS #4

VITA AYALA • MARCELO FERREIRA (A) • Cover by SKAN

CONNECTING VARIANT COVER BY JUAN JOSE RYP (4 OF 5)

THE MONSTER CALLED MORBIUS!

Michael Morbius has always been a man of science. But he’s also a man of pride, and when those two traits combine, the results have been catastrophic. This time is no different! Whatever Morbius has wrought havoc on his genetics – with his humanity inching closer to memory with every passing moment! This while a figure from his past returns, with Morbius dead in her sights.

32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

SCREAM: CURSE OF CARNAGE #4

CLAY McLEOD CHAPMAN • CHRISTOPHER MOONEYHAM (A) • Cover by RYAN STEGMAN

VARIANT COVER BY CLAYTON CRAIN

SPINNING OUT OF THE PAGES OF THE VENOM EVENT OF THE YEAR, ABSOLUTE CARNAGE!

SCREAM faces an ancient evil from the depths of the sea! Watch as the VENOM lore builds the history of the symbiotes into a twisted tale of horror and menace! You’ll never want to go back in the water again, True Believers!

32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN: THE BLACK CAT STRIKES #2 (OF 5)

DENNIS “HOPELESS” HALLUM • LUCA MARESCA (A) • Cover by SANA TAKEDA

Variant Cover by DAVID NAKAYAMA

BLACK CAT HEARTS SPIDER-MAN!

The BLACK CAT continues her mysterious crime spree in New York…but will her reappearance catch SPIDER-MAN in a tangled web between MARY JANE and his former flame?! An all-new look into Peter and Felicia’s fiery passion and the deadly consequences of a Super Hero romance. ME-OW!

32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

GWEN STACY #1 (OF 5)

CHRISTOS GAGE • TODD NAUCK (A) • Cover by ADAM HUGHES

VARIANT COVER BY JEEHYUNG LEE

VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY JEEHYUNG LEE

FACES OF GWEN VARIANT COVER BY TODD NAUCK

CONNECTING CHINESE NEW YEAR VARIANT COVER (1 OF 3) BY JIE YUAN

HIDDEN GEM VARIANT COVER BY TBA

VARIANT COVER BY J. SCOTT CAMBPELL

VARIANT COVER BY TBA

The First of Gwen Stacy’s AMAZING Adventures!

Gwen and Peter may not have met until AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #31, but that doesn’t mean Gwen’s life began on that page. Learn the never-before told origin of Gwen Stacy, top of her class, daughter of the Police Captain and, as her friend Harry Osborn calls her, “The Beauty Queen of Standard High.” But she’s way more that you even know! Gwen’s got a science brain, a nose for trouble and a no-quit attitude that always gets her in trouble. In the early Marvel Universe, that’s a recipe for disaster. Don’t miss Gwen, Captain Stacy, Harry and Norman Osborn, Crimemaster, Wilson Fisk, Jean DeWolff, Yuri Wantanabe and even Spider-Man!

40 PGS./Rated T …$4.99

Spider-Man February 2020 Marvel Comics Solicits Here are the February 2020 Marvel Comics Solicitations for all Spider-Man related comics! VENOM #23 DONNY CATES • MARK BAGLEY (A/C)

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

Text

Spider-Geddon #3 Thoughts

Okey dokey this was actually better than the last few issues of the main book.

Now look...there are still problems.

Still gaping fundamental problems.

Let us put aside the fact that the Inheritors are awful antagonists.

We still have 3 glaring problems that were present in Spider-Verse yet totally fixable in this event.

a) The over focus upon Doc Ock, which if anything is WORSE in this event than in the last one

b) Just like in Spider-Verse waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many characters rendering most everyone generic cartoon variants of Spider-Man as opposed to using the nuances of their personalities and exploring them via interactions. We have RYV Peter and MJ right next to a kid Peter and Uncle Ben Spidey and...nothing. Isn’t seeing Ben or kid Peter react to seeing all grown up Peter and his Spider WIFE more interesting that talking about how we should have one big Spider team? Isn’t seeing RYV Peter react to a living Uncle Ben more compelling than Spider-Ham making a snarky one gag? The closest we get to truly exploiting these types of opportunities is Ben and Otto butting heads and RYV MJ briefly (very briefly) showing a soft spot for Kid Peter. But would that have been that different if it was any other character? It only means something because he’s a kid and she’s a mother.

c) Why. Has. No. One. Suggested. Fighting. The. Inheritors. With. RADIATION!

*facepalm*

I’m even ashamed of myself for not bringing that point up sooner.

The first Morlun story concludes with the genius tactic by Peter to use radiation to fight Morlun which practically kills him.

In Spider-Verse NOBODY brings this up until conveniently towards the end when they are stranded on a radioactive Earth.

In Spider-Geddon, again, nobody brings this up.

Radiation might not be to the Inheritors what sonics and fire are to symbiote but it has still been a consistently effective weapon against them as far as anyone knows. And in almost all the early Venom and Carnage stories Spider-Man or the other protagonists (and the writers handling them back then) were smart enough to try and exploit that obvious weakness so why do we start up the stupid pills in Inheritor stories?

In Spider-Verse you vaguely had the excuse that really only Peter and maybe Doc Ock would know of that weakness but after that story everyone knew of that weakness and no one is trying to exploit it. I get that you need recruits but if you HAVE a means of beating them then maybe USE it? For fuck’s sake Doc Ock is a specialist in radiology!

This next criticism is a little more debatable I will admit.

In the context of this situation...is it really believable that there would be a roughly equal number of people opposed to killing the Inheritors?

Of course there would be some but there seems to be about as many opposing the idea as supporting it. In fact the book is (superficially) framing both sides as neither wholly right or wrong.

But...is that really the case?

Touchy subject here but...this is a genuine bona fide war for survival. The Inheritors were actively engaging in genocide in their killing spree last time and were trying to achieve an endgame of eradicating all spider totems, willing to murder a baby to do that.

Now you might be saying it’s right and proper for there to be a side opposed to the killing. Because Spider-Man has a no kill rule right?

And that’s true...usually...Because....he has actually taken life a few times. Sometimes deliberately. He’s no Punisher or even Captain America but it’s happened.

In fact in Morlun’s first story Peter very seriously considers for a moment how far he’s willing to go to stop Morlun once he has him at his mercy. He’s spared the decision but it’s really not clear cut what he would’ve done. In fact he outright murders Morlun in their next encounter, granted he was not in control of himself.

Now of course you have got situations like Maximum Carnage wherein Spider-Man has considered but ultimately rejected killing as a viable option, and that was also a sort of war too, one in which you had some nasty characters indeed.

Buuuuuuuut...there are important differences.

First of all Carnage and his gang were very possibly not as physically imposing as the Inheritors. Carnage was their biggest gun and he was stronger than Venom and Spidey combined. But Shriek wasn’t. Demo-Goblin wasn’t. Doppelganger wasn’t. They had their own strengths and weaknesses and none of them were push overs by any means. But it wasn’t like the only hope anyone had of taking them down in a fair fight was with sheer weight of numbers. The Inheritors are essentially a gang of Carnage’s but who can kill and weaken with just a touch.

Carnage specifically also had a more easily exploitable weakness that enabled him to be subdued more easily. Sonics and fire are easier to come by and safer to use than radiation. Remember the Inheritors might be vulnerable to radiation but it’s like how Superman is vulnerable to magic. It’s not their specific Achilles Heel like with kryptonite or sonics/fire, it’s just something beyond the limits of their durability.

Team Carnage was also not as much of a threat. Okay the Inheritors arguably might only target totems instead of civilians in general, but Carnage’s limited technology and means of travel meant he was at worst a citywide threat. The Inheritors are a multiversal threat at least to totems.

Another crucial factor here is that as weird as this might be to say now, Team Carnage had some hope of reform, whereas the Inheritors really don’t. Carnage and his crew were mostly mentally disturbed individuals with homicidal tendencies and super powers. In theory they could maybe be cured of their mental instability or their abilities. This isn’t the case with the Inheritors because they aren’t crazy at all. Mass murderers yes, but not crazy. As cartoonishly evil as they are, fundamentally they do what they do to survive. They kill the totems because they literally eat them, that’s how they are biologically constructed. They were trying to wipe out all spider totems to neutralize future threats to themselves. To hope for them to reform is akin to hoping a lion will turn vegetarian, it’s never going to happen because it’s in their nature to be what they are. They could be nicer, they could be unwilling to kill civilians to reach their goals, maaaaaaaybe they could even be convinced to not try and en masse wipe out all spider totems.

But fundamentally they do what they do because of the food chain and the Spider-Heroes of this story are their menu options.

This goes beyond the morality of taking life, it’s survival plain and simple made clearer cut because the Inheritors are willing to kill those in the way of their snack time.

Finally, and perhaps most crucially, not killing the Inheritors in Spider-Verse was arguably an option because there was a viable means of containing them long term (even though eating radioactive mutant spiders would surely kill them but whatever).

In this story, that option is dead in the water. They haven’t got the means to imprison them the way Team Carnage could be imprisoned and potentially rehabilitated.

So with all this said I find it seriously questionable that the story would even bother framing this as a true blue ‘debate’. Killing them is at least as morally justified as killing Nazis in a fire fight during WWII would’ve been.

I also debate some of the people who’re on Miles’ ‘no kill’ team.

I mean RYV Peter Parker...he did literally kill Venom. And I know RYV #5 by Slott tried to make out he was renewing his no kill vow by not killing the Regent but like...he wasn’t in the wrong really for killing Venom in the first place.

Maybe this is justified on the grounds that they didn’t know of the schism between the two groups and just stuck with whatever group initially recruited them.

In the flipside I find it a little unbelievable that Gamerverse Spidey is so unfazed by Otto’s willingness to kill. From what we’ve seen of his character, I dunno I don’t get that impression of him at all. At least he’d question it and morally wrestle with it to some extent. But he just goes along with it.

In fact that describes his whole character thus far in the main event. After issue #0 (which in hindsight was released when it was because the game was at it’s hottest) his appearance here amounts to being shocked by Leopardon and making a few quips and that’s it. He’s basically here for the same reason Peter was in New Avengers, boost sales via investment in him, so he shows up to do the bare minimum. Although what makes me raise an eyebrow is if his multiverse saving adventure where he met a giant robot will ever be mentioned again. I doubt it will. Also doesn’t it make more sense for him to be on Miles’ team given his history with Miles, his comparatively more similar morality and the fact that there is an MJ on his team? It seems way more full of potential drama if nothing else; but like I said this series isn’t interested in that so much as playing with variant action figures.

Now speaking of Leopardon, unquestionably he and Supaidaman (along with Spider-Ham in fairness) stole the show. The gag scene about leading with the sword was genuinely great especially if you’ve seen shows like the 1970s Japanese Spidey show or Power Rangers/Super Sentai.

Other positives include the art and Ben Reilly not being a jerkoff. Now I’m reading this having NOT read his solo-book that preceded this so maybe he’s out of character and I just don’t know.

Something that is a positive and a negative is the use of Otto and Miles.

Obviously pushing Miles and/or (especially) Otto over Peter would typically piss me the fuck off.

As would doing a story so outside of what a Spider-Man story should be.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut...I have come to appreciate some caveats to that in the context of this series.

Spider-Geddon mercifully didn’t derailing Peter (or to my knowledge Miles’) solo books the way Spider-Verse did. Even in Spec from what I’ve read it’s just Spider-Man and Morlun punching each other on the streets which mitigates the mysticism that typically shouldn’t be in a Spider-Man story. Plus Zdarsky’s (crappy) Spec run had wrapped up when Spider-Geddon hijacked Spec.

Spider-Geddon is in a sense off to the side, it’s own mini-series and can thus be it’s own thing. The tie-ins to it from other titles (like Spider-Gwen) is another discussion and I’m not reading everything because I don’t hate myself enough to do that.

Not only does this mostly mitigate it not being what a Spider-Man story should usually be (because it’s a Spider-Man universe story off to the side, not a Peter Parker or Miles story in their own books) but it also better justifies Miles and Otto getting the spotlight.

Whilst in Spider-Verse it was insulting that Peter wasn’t the main character in his own book, because this isn’t happening in his own book (but he is still the lead in his tie-ins to the main story) it makes his absence from the spotlight okay.

In theory it even makes Otto’s presence in the spotlight okay...were it not for him being an asshat painted as more morally greyer than an asshat.

That however does bring up the problem that this series was both advertised as and specifically exists to serve Miles first and foremost. This series was supposed to make bank off the public awareness of Into the Spider-Verse but Miles is at best the secondary character in this cast of thousands vs. Otto who is clearly the primary character. He gets more panel time, he gets more exploration of his personality...even if that mostly amounts to obnoxiously repeating ‘the die is cast’ over and over.

It doesn’t help when the narrative, in spite of it’s pretences of even handedness, subtly paints Otto as in the right and much smarter than Miles.

Sticking with the issue of leadership I get that this event exists to primarily (in theory) serve Miles and secondarily (in theory) serve Otto (in practice it is the reverse) because one was getting a movie and the other was getting a solo book.

So it adds up then that they’d be the leaders of their respective factions....but...surely on Miles’ team there were more qualified people?

Miles is an inexperienced kid who to my understanding has never operated as a leader in a team. You have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more experienced Spider-Heroes there some of whom may have worked as leaders before so...why is Miles leader in-story exactly?

I mean think about it, Peter was made leader of a faction in Spider-Verse because he succeeded in beating Morlun and/or he was the Chosen One or something right?

But...RYV Peter is right there. He’s identical to 616 Peter in almost every way except he

a) Didn’t have 10+ years of shitty Brand New Day and Slott stories to live through...which automatically makes him better than 616 Peter if anything, and

b) He’s had over 8 years worth of experience functioning as part of a team and arguably the leader of it to, or at least co-leader with MJ

Surely he is more qualified than Miles?

Another sort of double edged sword presented in this issue is how it handles tie-ins.

Spider-Verse is slightly notorious for Slott outright lying in claiming that you wouldn’t need to read the tie-ins to follow the story but of course you did.

However to Spider-Geddon’s credit that’s only been the case in regards to issue #0. Most everything of significance that has happened outside the main books has been shown or referenced enough that you could follow the main book thus far without having read anything else. Yes, this does still make the book feel like an anthology add for everything else but it’s done better than Spider-Verse is what I’m saying.

One thing that is a hold over problem though is the wonky timeline.

I said of issue #2 that it weirdly happens before issue #0 and shows us stuff that happens after the first Spec tie-in issue. Well issue #3 continues that trend.

Whilst Spider-Geddon #2 showed us something that surely happens after the first Spec tie-in issue (thus ruining it’s cliffhanger) but Spider-Geddon #3 seems to give us the resolution to that second tie-in issue as well because we learn Peter chooses to fight Morlun in order to keep him occupied and make everyone else’s jobs’ easier.

Um....nice to be told that in this issue rather than be shown it in Peter’s own book.

And before you ask if I just read things out of order I double checked and the second Spec tie-in issue was in fact released after Spider-Geddon #3 so the editor(s) fucked up big time.

It’s also a decision that seriously hurts the main book if they stick to it going forward.

Because Morlun for the strong first impression he had...was really never one of the more interesting or colourful of Spider-Man’s enemies.

And his family are even blander variant action figure versions of him.

Verna is Female Morlun.

Daemos is Bigger, Dumber, more Brutish Morlun.

Brix and Bora are ‘Those Ghost Twins from Matrix Reloaded’ Morlun...who also take out whips and pose as if it’s fight time for no reason in that one panel randomly.

Jennix is Scientist Morlun if he also ripping off Ra’s Al Ghul.

And Solus is Old Morlun who looks like evil Santa Claus.

If Morlun isbread with some thinly spread butter, then his family has no butter and has dried out a lot.

Like honestly how much of a difference would it have made if you swapped out 2 of the 4 Inheritors in this story with Verna and Morlun who were absent? Nothing sans the fact that you needed Jennix to do science stuff but even then he wasn’t very good at it. And that’s the plot too. He’s a super cloning genius but he can’t figure out New U tech. Um....okay that is weird.

Moving on, this is more a point in connection to Spider-Force than this comic but Otto claims that he handpicked the members of that team.

This raises some questions.

1) How? I get Ashley Barton, Kaine and Jessica Drew. He knows all of them, but how could he have known about Charlie?

2) Spider-Force claims that the strike force was assembled because they don’t mind dying. Now this is inconsistent in the issue itself but for the sake of argument let’s say it was true, how would Doc Ock know any of those people sans maybe Ashley wouldn’t mind dying. Maybe also Kaine but I’d imagine his bad blood with Kaine would colour his perceptions on that one. With Jessica and Charlie...there is no reason for him to think that that I can think of.

3) Now in fairness the attitude and skillset of that team does make them well suited to a strikeforce...except Charlie. He seems tough and streetwise...why does this make him a great fit for that team, someone Otto would handpick??????????

Let’s stick with Scarlet Spiders for a moment.

So Ben Reilly’s 27th clone says dying all those times turned him wonky. Okay that’s not too bad. But also all the other spiders met him and he already explained himself to them and endeared himself to them.

Again...why are we telling but not showing. Ben Reilly (after recently being basically an evil businessman) meets a version of Norman Osborn? Where was that juicy scene??????

Let’s change gears here and talk something more superficial briefly.

So the art was....good. Different artists from the last 2 issues and it shows but not bad art by any means. The transition from one artist to another is a little noticeably but the styles are similar enough and both look good enough (great even) that it’s not a problem.

The fight scenes sans anything involving Leopardon though...are. They’re just so bland and functional, there is no sense of dynamism or choreography to them. I blame there being too many characters along with the Inheritor’s boring visual designs.

Ironically for all my gripes the last scene of the comic was...intriguing.

I didn’t read the Edge of Spider-Geddon issue introducing Norman Osborn Spider-Man...but now I just might do that.

The idea of Norman being Spider-Man is already kind of interesting.

But more poignantly the idea that whilst Miles and Otto have divided the team along moral lines and the Inheritors are also out there, there is now a small, secret fourth faction working their own agenda makes this way more interesting.

It hints that Spider-Geddon will become more like a real war and have people running their own agendas. And Norman is a great choice to make that faction. What’s so delectable also is Norman isn’t even making a power play out of selfishness per se. He like Miles and Otto is seeking to win the war, beat the Inheritors and above all else survive, but he’s just considering yet more extreme methods to do it. In a very abstract way it’s a little like how Xavier and Magneto fundamentally disagree about their methods regarding mutantkind but they are united in fundamentally disagreeing with Apocalypse third extremist option.

So over all...I can’t say I disliked reading this issue. A first for the main Spider-Geddon book I must admit.

P.S. the cover lied. No fight between the factions and no Superior Ock

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trashyazeohane · 6 years

Photo

Wait For It - Hogwart!AU

Part 1/Part 2/Part 3

Summary: David is a ball of sunshine, Max can’t deal with his feelings, Nikki and Neil have doubtful methods of helping and Daniel really hates Max. Oh, and a little bit of magic is there too.

Additional comments: Fluff, Slow Burn

Word count: 13 850

Beta-read by my amazing friend @maxvid-fan

You can also read it on AO3. Enjoy!

ﾟ｡･ * . ☆ ━ I ━ ☆ . * ･｡ﾟ

“Love doesn't discriminate

Between the sinners

And the saints

t takes and it takes and it takes (…)”

- Lin-Manuel Miranda

Max must have misheard that. He had to. There had to be something wrong with his ears – to be honest there was a faint ringing sound echoing at the back of his skull which didn’t exactly want to quiet down yet. Was he in such bad shape that he was starting to hear things?

“Pardon?” He murmured, blinking and staring with bewilderment at the woman sitting behind the giant mahogany desk. “I must have heard you wrong.”

Because no, there was no way that she actually had said –

Gwen sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“You heard me correctly Max. Three months of detention.” She stated and exhaled slowly through her barely parted lips.

“But why?!” Max asked, maybe too loud for comfort at this late hour, but he didn’t care. Everyone else inside the castle was sleeping soundly in their beds – well, of course almost everyone – a good few floors away. There was no way he could wake someone up.

The hand fell down from the woman’s face as she looked at him skeptically – with one eyebrow raised high onto her creamed forehead. Or at least Max assumed it was some kind of cream… or the residues of some mask the woman had put on her face in hope of calming down during the evening.

Apparently a few students had some different plans for her – and Max was unfortunately one of those students. So here she was, back in her office, still wearing a sleeping robe and giving Max the detention. Three months of detention!

“Why detention or why three months?” Gwen asked, crossing her hands on her chest and tapping one finger on the arm. “Because if you’re asking about the first one then I’m sure you already know the answer.”

Max bit his bottom lip harshly and then hissed as he felt the cut he had there open. With the wrist of his left hand he brushed it, hoping to get rid of these few new droplets of blood appearing there.

The Transfiguration teacher grabbed the wand from behind the belt of her fluffy robe and swished it. The lonely roll of parchment laying on the desk swirled and turned into a tissue, which then floated to Max.

He grabbed it, mumbled a quick thanks under his breath and pushed it to his mouth to stop the bleeding.

“I was asking about the second thing.” He murmured after a few seconds, moving the tissue away. Nope, there still was blood. Quite a lot of it. And he had just left the Hospital Wing. He wasn’t keen on going back there so quickly.

“Well… I talked with Daniel and we both decided that you are old enough to not act on impulses.” The woman said, tilting her head. “Especially if those impulses end in a destroyed corridor to the Clock Tower.”

Max cast his gaze away, staring at the closed door to Gwen’s office.

“Why isn’t crazy Da… Mister Daniel giving me detention?” He inquired instead, when the sudden empty space between them was becoming quite too much, weighing his bones and muscles down.

Damn, he was tired. Exhausted even. His eyelids were dropping down and the only thing he dreamed about now was a bed and a few hours of peaceful sleep.

“He is currently taking care of the mess you all have made.”

Oh, Max could already feel the hell he’ll be going through during the next Potion classes. Great, fucking fantastic. Where could he sign himself for a week stay at the Hospital Wing?

The woman eyed him curiously for a few seconds – maybe it was even a full minute, Max wasn’t sure. At this point he just wanted to go to sleep and deal with the thought that he just received detention for three months later on.

Life was fucking perfect. This was what he was getting for –

No, it didn’t matter right now.

(He wouldn’t change a thing in the end.)

Max moved the tissue away and then licked his lips hesitantly, checking if there were still a few droplets left. He could sense the cut, but it looked like it stopped bleeding. For now.

“I understand.” He finally said. “So when will I be starting the detention?”

Max doubted that the woman would want the tissue back, so he put it inside his pocket. It may come in handy later.

“Next Tuesday.” Gwen said with a small, tired smile tugging on her lips.

Oh, so he still had a week of freedom. Or maybe they gave him a small vacation to heal. Or maybe for the others to heal – because, to be honest, Max was the least injured one. It didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell, but it could be worse.

(And some small part of Max was kinda proud of that. He only hoped that Nikki would be okay too as she had to stay in the Hospital Wing for the night.)

Okay, he can live through three months of detention. Actually once he had had it worse – because he had gotten five months of detention! That had been two years ago, back when he was a fourth year. He had just pissed off the wrong person – cough! his own Head of the Slytherin House – and the price had to be paid.

Cleaning cauldrons will probably be a never ending part of his nightmares till the day of his death.

Max shuddered, but then moved his gaze back at the woman. Plus it was Gwen he was talking about. She was nothing like Daniel! She wouldn’t comment on every little thing he would do even a bit wrong. She wouldn’t pierce him with a cold stare. She wouldn’t treat him like a piece of shit.

So maybe it won’t be that bad.

“So what will we be doing then?” He asked.

Gwen blinked and then chuckled under her nose.

“Oh no, you got it wrong. You won’t be helping me during your detention…” She stated, a few cackles escaping her lips at the end.

What?

“Then who?” Max asked.

Please not crazy Daniel, please not crazy Daniel, please not crazy Daniel, please not –

“David. He needs a helping hand around his greenhouses.”

On the second thought… Crazy Daniel sounded fine.

***

“It’s not so bad.” Neil murmured from somewhere above Max’s head.

He only groaned in response, embracing the cold table with his warm face. He didn’t want to see the world, he was fine there, not staring at the passing students. Plus the chilly sensation which was seeping into his skin was making the scratches, still visible there, less painful.

Plus there was a more prominent and important reason. A very, very important reason. The teachers’ table full of… well, teachers.

Max didn’t want to even glance at them for a millisecond.

“Neil, it’s a disaster.”

There was an exasperated sigh coming from above him, followed by a sound of something being stabbed. Probably the eggs Neil had been eating for breakfast.

Max mustered one toast into himself and that was all. Usually he was an animal, tearing through rolls and stealing lonely pieces of ham from other people’s plates. But not today… Today his stomach was twisting, curling and twitching nervously inside his body.

And it was all because of him.

“I actually thought you would be kinda happy… about that turn of events.”

“No, Neil, this is terrible.” Max said, maybe too loud, as he lifted his face from the table. His one hand moved to comb through his messy black strands. And it was totally an accident that it was the hand that also helped him not see the teachers’ table. “I’d prefer to clean fucking cauldrons for fucking crazy Daniel for three months than have detention with David.”

Neil looked kinda surprised, but also amused by his outburst. Yeah, that was amusement tugging on the corners of his lips and making Max want to slap that fucking smirk off.

“Whatever you say, Max.” Neil finally mused, closing his eyes with shoulders dropping in defeat. “But if you really don’t want to go to David for detention I always have a few potions I want to test.”

“Sign me the fuck up.”

“You may die.”

“Don’t care.”

***

Max, unfortunately, didn’t die after trying Neil’s potions. One turned his skin green, the other one made him belch colorful bubbles and others, well… had other weird side effects. But not one of them killed him.

The fact also kinda surprised Neil, as he stared at green Max with bubbles coming out of his mouth, but still very much alive.

“I must have messed up the amount of Bloodroot petals.”

“No shit.”

Nikki, who finally returned from the Hospital Wing, had the best day of her life. After a few hours and at least dozen potions she was still laughing like a madman. Her laughing spree started after Max had explained to her his foolproof plan of dying before he would even get near David and she was still doing it after the last potion had been drunk.

Max preferred her laughing over looking like hell – but the chuckles were interrupted a few times by the Gryffindor grabbing her ribs and hissing in pain.

“You okay?” Max asked, glancing at himself in the broken, rusty window, trying to sound as disinterested as he could.

“Yeah… just…” She wheezed and neither he nor Neil were sure if that was because she was still in pain or due to that everlasting smile on her lips thanks to Max’s problem. “Broken ribs heal slowly, even with magic.”

Neil nodded, approving of this statement.

But Max couldn’t parade green around the school for the rest of his life, so he went to the Hospital Wing. The nurse eyed him suspiciously, but only sighed and got to work, mixing different potions to help him get his normal skin color back.

***

Okay, the next plan was maybe a little less ideal, however it was good nonetheless.

Nikki simply proposed jumping from a high place and hoping that this would end it all.

Neil quickly shot that idea down.

“You don’t need to actually die. We just need to do something that make you unable… to attend detention.” The Ravenclaw explained, as the both of them sent him quite surprised stares.

Well, Neil was kinda right. And all this planning was for naught. Well, maybe they could still use it in the future.

“You’re no fun, Neil. I’m supporting Max!” Nikki pipped from next to Max.

“I’m trying to save him!”

“You gave him at least a dozen dubious potions yesterday!”

Neil was already opening his mouth to answer her, but found no good and intelligent reply in his mind, so he shut it and didn’t brush this topic anymore.

***

Of course, coming up with a plan that didn’t involve Max dying was harder than they thought.

First Nikki and Neil painted some red and pinkish spots on Max’s skin – so he would look like he was ill – and then sent him to the Hospital Wing. The nurse ran around him, fuming and cursing while searching in books as big as crazy Daniel’s ego for spells that could heal Max’s suspicious rash.

Maybe the stupidest plans were the best.

The nurse was just about to make him stay the night (or a few more) over, in a not so comfy bed, but then she brushed his cheek and smeared the paint residing there.

Fuck.

In the end it didn’t work.

***

After that they had searched through the whole school for a specific spider.

Neil had read somewhere that Brown Recluses had quite a venomous bite and only the St. Mungo’s hospital had the antidote for it.

And they found many, many spiders – mostly typical ones like a Redback Spider, Cellar Spiders and even a few Hobo Spiders – but not the one they were looking for.

But the nurse almost had believed his lie yesterday, so maybe today would be no exception either.

So Nikki happily found and grabbed a lonely, poor Giant House Spider and tried to help Max get bitten by it.

(Forcing a spider to bite someone was more difficult than it looked, Max concluded after a few minutes of struggling.)

After that came a few spells on his skin to change the color of it, few runs from one side of the corridor to the other to sweat, and Max was ready to return to the Hospital Wing.

To say that the nurse was surprised and not happy would be an understatement. But when Max told her what had bit him (or what actually hadn’t bit him), she quickly turned pale as a marble. Her hands fidgeted and then she dropped a bottle filled with purple potion onto the floor.

Uh-oh?

She laid him down on the bed and then started to run around the room, searching for correct potions, ingredients and books with spells. Quickly his hand was submerged in a bowl filled with something that weirdly resembled a goop in sensation, but both freezing cold and burning hot in turns. Not to mention it smelled terrible. The nurse ran around him, casting spells that did nothing. Because there was nothing to cure, beside a typical bite from a typical, not really harmful, spider.

The nurse lifted her head at him with a frown storming through her eyes and forehead. Her hand gripped his wrist tighter.

“I’m sorry, but I think we need to amputate it.”

What the fuck?

“What?”

“I don’t think I have enough potions and ingredients to fight the venom in your blood, so we need to cut it off before it will spread further.” The woman stated, holding Max’s wrist with one hand and her wand in the other.

She made a swish movement with her right palm and a red aura, which appeared near her shoulder, floated through her hand to the wand and then to Max’s shoulder –

“No, no, no, no, no, stop! It didn’t bite me!”

To say that Max shouldn’t come even close to the Hospital Wing after that would be an understatement in this situation.

***

In the end, nothing they did worked. Or at least not in the way Max wanted it to work.

(Nikki even proposed destroying something to give Max even worse detention, but he was afraid that Gwen would magically turn those three months into five or more)

So there was one last thing he could do.

“Are you sure?” Neil asked, leaning over the edge of the tower to stare down at the ground many, many feet below them.

The wind swished past them, ruffling their robes and hair. It was kinda chilly so high up, but Nikki looked like she didn’t even care as she swung her legs back and forth, looking down with pure childish curiosity beaming from her eyes.

“Yes.” Max said, licking his almost healed lips and glancing down. This height should really damage him. Or even kill.

He didn’t want to die here, but the sweet, delicious embrace of death would probably still be better than dealing with David for three months.

“I will visit you in St. Mungo.” Nikki chirped, looking up at Max as he moved to the edge.

“Thanks. I… appreciate it.”

Max took a deep breath, feeling the chilly air sneaking through his lungs to his bones and muscles, freezing them for a few seconds. No, he had to do it. There was no turning back.

His heart hammered, beated, drummed loudly in his ears, making all the other sounds quiet down and the height between him and the ground so, so large. The people below looked like ants, moving happily from one corner of the grounds to the other.

Max closed his eyes.

“I really don’t like it, Max.”

He exhaled slowly though his lips and then glanced at Neil.

“You know what Muggles say?”

“What?”

“Yolo!” And with that one word leaving his chapped lips, Max leaped to his freedom.

Well, kinda funny thing. He wasn’t even sure what this word meant – he heard it around the school, screamed loudly, especially during Potions when some ingredients were added. It was mostly followed by an explosion or the loud booming voice of the teacher, angrily marching through the smoke. It definitely had to mean something cool. Otherwise people wouldn’t say it so often.

And he would die with this one last word leaving his lips.

Well, Max would die, if he actually started falling down. But nothing like that happened. He expected the ground to get closer and closer to him, with the wind swishing loudly in his ear. He expected to feel the adrenaline, to sense the blood rushing through his heart. He almost wanted to sense the overbearing dread, because in just a few seconds he would welcome the soil with a high five.

But nothing like this happened. Max jumped and then… froze in the air.

What the fuck?

“What is happening here!?”

Goddammit.

Max wanted to turn around, but he couldn’t move. His muscles didn’t want to twitch even as he floated in the air, immobilized by a heavy force swirling around his body.

Gladly (or not) soon he was brought back to the tower, where Neil stood with an embarrassed façade. Nikki just looked lost.

And in front of Max stood a very, very pissed Gwen.

“Max, what the hell were you thinking? You could have killed yourself. Or at least hurt yourself pretty badly!” The woman screamed with her foot tapping an uneven rhythm on the cold, stony floor.

The violet coat rattled loudly under the passing wind.

Max weighed his options in his mind quickly and decided to stay quiet. Or at least tried. It wasn’t his fault that Nikki usually did something before thinking.

“Oh Max was just trying to escape detention with Mister David.”

If he was a basilisk, Nikki would drop dead in this very moment. But unfortunately Max was only a human, so his deadly glare did nothing, only made the girl chuckle a little under her nose.

Gwen looked between her and him and then sighed heavily with her shoulders dropping down significantly. The hand which wasn’t wielding a wand moved to her face, so she could pinch the bridge of her nose.

“Max, I can’t even…” Then she took a deep, calming breath and looked up at the sky. It took her a few seconds to let out the hot air outside and glance back at Max. “Max, you’re helping David for three months and you better behave yourself or three months will turn into half a year.”

Oh no.

“Did I make myself clear?” Gwen raised one eyebrow and then crossed her arms.

“Yes.”

“Good. Now return to the castle and I don’t even want to see you outside today.”

The trio shuffled slowly past Gwen into the castle. Max’s shoulders were hunched, but Nikki next to him looked like she had the time of her life. Neil on the other side… less so.

(It was him who had probably called Gwen… Max wanted to be mad at him, but couldn’t find the anger inside of him right now.)

They were just about to walk down the dark, curly stairs, when the Transfiguration teacher behind him spoke:

“And hey, Max…” When he turned his face to her, Gwen’s mouth stretched into an evil smirk. “Detention starts tomorrow at five.”

***

Max stopped in front of the glassy, dirty window. He raised his hand – because maybe he should knock – but then moved it down. No, that was stupid. He never had knocked here, so why should he start now?

He checked the time. He was late. Not by much, but around ten minutes or so. Would the teacher be mad if he was late? Crazy Daniel would probably prolong his detention, maybe take away points from his own House (Max had a feeling the man kinda hated him, and the feeling was mutual, asshole). But David wasn’t like Daniel. Or like they were totally opposite.

David would probably smile that stupid, cheerful grin of his and not even mention it, glad that the student could simply make it.

Well, only one way to find out actually.

Max grabbed the handle and pushed it down, feeling his heart leaping painfully high into his throat. It was swirling and twirling constantly today, beating like crazy about the simple idea of detention. It was thumping and drumming so loudly and joyfully that Max was sure everyone around him could hear it.

(Even though Neil had said that he hadn’t been hearing a thing.)

The door opened with a sad squeak, making way for Max to walk inside the greenhouse.

And the first thing Max did was kick a bucket holding some tree. Great Max. But it wasn’t his fault. Neither his legs nor arms wanted to move properly today, sweating profusely like crazy and almost making him slip.

Max cursed under his nose, when the sound of his feet hitting the metal woke up some plant on the left which started to wiggle. What the fuck?

This was exactly why he hated this place. Everything was so… so alive. You’d want to touch that beautiful flower on the right, but it was probably poisonous and will kill you slowly in three years. That row of small cacti looked lovely? Wrong! One pinch of their needle will make you vomit through the whole night! Oh, were those golden flowers safe to smell and admire their beauty? Guess aga – wait, they were just dandelions. Never mind.

(Why the fuck did David have, among all of those amazing plants, fricking dandelions?)

Max moved slowly through rows of different, colorful plants, bending and sometimes jumping over roots. He could swear once he saw some vine reaching out to him, but he quickly moved from its path. It took him at least four or so minutes before he reached another door, from behind which he could hear low hums.

He reached and knocked on the glass door. Nothing happened. The sweet tone was still seeping from under it like a lullaby. So Max knocked once again, louder. Still… still nothing.

Okay, so going in it was.

Max pushed the handle and then opened the door, peeking inside first before fully going in.

As expected the Herbology teacher was inside the room, softly humming a delicate tune under his nose as he moved through the warm room with a giant watering can in both of his hands. He stopped to bend down and water one white flower and then he was again on his journey to help other plants and trees gathered inside this room. The man swirled around the flowerpots with ease, even though from his place near the door Max could see that his eyes were mostly closed. Another pour of water here, a slight step to the side to not crash into an Asphodel there, then a small twirl to maneuver around Bouncing Bulb, only to stop under a sink.

Max was just about to maybe shout, to show that he was here – even though it was hard to do so through his closing down throat – when he noticed a black something sticking out from the teacher’s ears.

Oh wait. Nikki once had showed Max something similar. A device to play music! But how was it called? MV… no, not that… MP… MP something something.

That was why David couldn’t hear him.

So yeah, clearing throat and shouting probably wouldn’t help. Will Max actually have to move closer to the teacher and maybe even touch him?

He wasn’t sure if his body could manage to do so. Especially his heart, which was hammering like crazy – painfully echoing in his skull. Was he getting a heart attack? Probably!

But no, he had to do it, otherwise Gwen would probably give him more detention. More detention with David of all people.

So he somehow, magically probably, mustered his legs to move closer to the man, who was still singing like a doofus under his nose while filling up the water can. Max’s hand floated in the air for a few more seconds than necessary, before it landed on the teacher’s shoulder.

To say that Max kinda frightened the red haired man would be an understatement. Especially as the man yelped, jumped and then turned around with one black something falling out of his ear.

“Max! You scared me!” Green, vivid eyes found his own and Max tried really, really hard not to look away immediately.

“I knocked.” He murmured, clenching his fists.

David looked behind him at the opened door and then his mouth formed that small stupid ‘o’ when he was noticing something obvious.

“Oh, sorry Max. I was listening to some tunes while working.” The man stated, reaching to his ears to unplug the other black thing and put it into his pocket.

Max wasn’t sure what to do, so he nodded.

“G… Miss Gwen sent me here for my detention?”

Another blink of lush eyes, another small ‘o’ formed by pink lips and then David was nodding vigorously.

“Oh yeah, yeah, I remember.” But something in the way he said that made Max think that the man didn’t really remember that. “Come, come. Do you have some gloves?”

“Erm…” Well, of course not.

David passed him and moved to the door from which Max entered and walked through it.

“Well, don’t worry. I’ll lend you some of mine.”

Max followed the teacher through the first greenhouse to a small storage room on the other side. All this time Max was a few feet away – far enough so that he wasn’t feeling like fainting, but close enough that it was acceptable. David didn’t seem to notice it, humming some tune under his nose all the way.

David gave him old gloves – they were frayed in too many places to count, sewn a few times and smelling like soil. Max immediately hated them. But well, he liked his fingers and he knew for a fact that some plants here were dangerous, so he put them on.

“So what are we doing today?” Max asked, while David put on his own gloves.

The man turned and sent him the brightest grin of all times – that made Max blind for a second – and answered:

“We’re going to replant some plants!”

Easy enough.

***

Apparently it wasn’t as easy as it had seemed at first, because David didn’t exactly tell Max that they were replanting Spiky Bushes.

So yeah, the process wasn’t so nice.

It took Max at least half an hour to get one bush from a pot without being punctured by the yellow spikes. It took him another half an hour to fill another pot with special soil and then took him another one to put the bush back inside (while only being grazed once). And like that, almost half of his detention time flew by with Max only managing to do one thing!

(It wasn’t like he tried to be sufficient, it just kinda… pissed him off.)

And David, that fucking ado– irritating teacher, during this time managed to replant three bushes, all this time smiling like crazy and praising Max’s every move.

“Oh Max, you did great!” David said, approaching him when Max was able to put one plant away. “Look, it’s so happy in its new home!”

Max wasn’t sure if Spiky Bushes could exactly be happy – like do they even feel any kind of emotion?

But when David’s gloved hands landed on it, petting the plant softly, the spikes got significantly smaller.

Huh, maybe they do have emotions.

“Why do we have to do it anyway?” Max asked, moving to another pot in the line and dragging it closer to the bag with soil.

“Oh, Spiky Bushes get their vitamins from the Sun. But in the winter there isn’t enough sunlight for them to grow properly, so I replant them into soil which has a surplus of those vitamins.”

“Seems reasonable enough.”

“It sure is!”

Max’s eyebrow twitched hearing the high pitched, cheerful voice. He didn’t comment on it. He preferred to return back to work and forget that David was near him.

***

Apparently he had to visit David three times a week – every Tuesday, Thursday and – damn – Saturday. He was glad that winter was coming, so it meant no Quidditch practices. But it still wasn’t a very nice thought that immediately popped into Max’s mind first thing in the Saturday morning.

(The worst was the fact that some horrible part of Max already wanted to go there and he was still in his boxers!)

He spent the time before detention by nudging Neil to do Max’s homework for him. The teen, of course, didn’t agree, but helped him write an essay for Transfiguration. At least it was one thing off Max’s mind. Nikki, in this time, occupied the chair next to them in the library and snored loudly.

And (not) soon enough it was afternoon and Neil and Nikki were bidding him farewell. While Neil looked kinda well… like usual, Nikki’s mouth was stretched in that ever knowing grin.

“Have fun, Max.”

“It’s detention. It isn’t supposed to be fun.” Max grumbled.

“I know, but you’re spending it with… David.” She tilted her head and looked at him and oh! Max kinda wanted to kill her.

(Fuck the fact that he had helped her almost two weeks ago.)

“And this is the worst part of the detention.” Max stated.

“Yeah, sure, tell yourself that.”

Yeah, choking her now sounded delightful.

But he was already four minutes late and, even though David wasn’t crazy Daniel, he still could give him more detention.

(Knowing David he probably wouldn’t even notice Max being late. But it wasn’t like Max wanted to go there…)

Also this time Max went into the greenhouse without knocking, because the Herbology teacher never heard him, so why should he do it anymore? And also this time David wasn’t in the main part of the building.

Max maneuvered, stepped, twirled and jumped around, once again forgetting about the Venomous Tentacula, and then he was in front of the door directing him further into the greenhouse.

This time it was slightly ajar, but Max couldn’t hear any tapping or hums coming from inside. Weird, but he still pushed the door slowly and peeked inside.

He would have lied if he said that he didn’t find David, because it was the first thing he noticed after entering.

The teacher was sitting on a chair with his hands curled on the table and face hidden in them.

“Mister David?” Max asked, entering slowly, letting the door squeak softly.

No response.

Max looked around and then slowly moved forward, a few steps at a time. His fingers twitched, not really sure what they should do. Move? Should he move them?

Max was close enough that if he lifted his hand, he would touch the redhead’s shoulder. And he wanted to, his brain was sending tons and tons of impulses to his palm, but Max held strongly.

No, he can’t do it. But well –

“David?” Max repeated himself, internally biting his tongue at the slip.

But also this time the man didn’t move, not counting the shoulders moving rhythmically up and down.

He was asleep.

Max could totally just sit around and wait till the time of detention would be over and then explain to David that he had been there on time. Knowing the gullible teacher he would probably believe him, especially as it was kinda true.

So why was Max’s hand moving without his consent? Why was it floating in the air, inching closer and closer to the mop of red hair? Why couldn’t he stop?

(Maybe because he didn’t want to.)

And there was a brief stillness – where he heard the soft rustles of plants, where he heard a sprinkler turning on somewhere in the background, where he could hear a lone bird flying above the greenhouse’s roof, where his heart beat so loud inside his ribcage that he was sure everyone could hear it.

A symphony, a painful symphony drumming inside his ribcage and temples.

His fingers twitched, unsure, hesitant, whether they should or should not touch the strands, even when they were so, so close.

Max swallowed hard, feeling the sudden, intense, submerging –

Max’s palm landed on David’s shoulder.

“Mister David?” He repeated himself, shaking the man.

The teacher stirred and slowly lifted his head from the confinement of his hands. For a few seconds he stared forward, at nothing and everything in the same time, and then blinked slowly, getting rid of the last dusty particles of sleep still being there on his eyelashes.

Max’s hand was still on the man’s shoulder when he turned around.

“Oh Max! I’m sorry, I must have fallen asleep accidentally. I’m so so sorry.” David suddenly stood up from the chair, tipping it backwards and almost making it crash down.

That would have happened, if Max didn’t move to catch it, breaking the connection.

“It’s okay.” He said, putting the chair back, looking back at David and noticing probably for the first time that he had big ashy bags under his eyes. Well, no, scratch that. Max had noticed them, but now, when he was finally able to stand close, he could see that they were painfully large.

There was this rumor going around that some students had seen the Herbology teacher walking around the school during the nights. But until now Max took it as a, well, rumor. But maybe there was a grain of truth in shushed sentences whispered from ear to ear.

David smiled at him a little bit sheepishly, a little bit unsure, before he finally cleared his throat and moved past Max.

“O-okay, we should get back to work!”

And with that David went outside.

Max turned on his heel, not before stealing one last glance at his teacher’s desk. Oh, he had fallen asleep grading some first years’ essays. Heh, not surprising then.

***

So like that two weeks passed. And all this time Max was replanting the Spiky Bushes. When he had more or less found a kind of proper technique it wasn’t so hard and he was doing it way faster now.

(There was even a short moment when he almost enjoyed it, but his brain quickly killed that thought, tore it apart and buried it deep down.)

So when one day Max walked into a greenhouse and found David actually already in the main part of it and saying:

“Today you’ll be doing something different”

It kinda took him by surprise.

“Okay…” Max mumbled and moved closer to David, but not too close to not accidentally smell his kinda nicely smelling –

(No, no, no!)

– shampoo and a soft hint of soil that seemed to always trail behind the teacher. “So what will we be doing today?”

“Do you remember Asphodels?” David asked, handing him the gloves.

Max took them and put them on.

“Ehh… kinda.” Not really.

But David didn’t comment on that as he moved further into the greenhouse.

“The root of an Asphodel is used in many potions. I’m sure you used it a lot too or at least Daniel told you about it.”

If Max had actually paid attention during Potions, that was. But he unfortunately didn’t do it enough to know some roots. It wasn’t that Max was bad at Potions, on the contrary, he was pretty good at it – and maybe this fact irritated crazy Daniel even more. Because he simply couldn’t pinpoint mistakes in Max’s potions.

“Yeah, it’s ringing a bell somewhere.” Still not really.

But David grinned at him with that smile with the power of a thousand suns and, God, Max almost got blinded by the sheer power of it.

“Good! I noticed a few days ago that some leaves were ill. I already gave them a specific healing potion, but we still need to get rid of the old ones, so the new ones can grow.”

Sounded easy enough. Getting rid of a few leaves shouldn’t be that problematic, right?

Again, wrong. Max should really stop expecting his life and especially detention to be easy. Especially as he saw rows and rows of the plant in the next room.

Fuck his life!

***

Trying to find the infected leaves wasn’t the worst, really. The worst was the closure he sometimes had to get. Because damn, sometimes the leaf looked sick, but also not sick, so Max had to call David for inspection.

And David sometimes had to lean in pretty close to see. And in this process he had to move closer to Max and occasionally brush their shoulders together. And there were times where David was in front of him – with hairs tickling Max’s nose as he was bending down to look at the leaf.

And Max’s hand would always twitch, squirm, tense. It took a lot of Max’s inner strength to not raise his hand and just… do something with it. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he knew he wanted to do something with it.

(Plus from so up close he could see all the freckles adorning David’s skin)

At the end of the day Max’s back was killing him and whenever he straightened it, he could hear his vertebrae clicking into place. Plus he was tired, no, exhausted as hell from trying to control his heart, mind and the stupid, idiotic and terrible urges appearing whenever David was near him.

Like today he could almost count every eyelash David had!

During the evening, when Max was walking through Slytherin common room, every younger year moved out of his way and the rest whispered between each other. Max didn’t care about them or about anything they were talking about. Though he caught bits and pieces of their conversations.

“What the heck. Is he smiling?”

“Max smiling? You must be delusional. Oh shit, you’re right!”

“Yeah, scary.”

“We should run…”

Max turned to them and the duo, who had been talking about him, scattered away.

***

The November quickly turned into December with a white, fluffy layer of snow covering the ground one not so beautiful morning.

“Fucking stupid white fucking shit.” Max mumbled as he walked through the wet snow in the direction of the forest.

Nikki and Neil were just behind him, with Nikki cackling loudly like a madman and Neil hiding his mouth behind a thick, blue scarf, secured tightly around his neck.

“Why did it have to fall today? When we have to find those stupid cones for dumb Potions!?” Max groaned, kicking a pile of snow.

It didn’t give him the satisfaction he hoped it would give him. It only agitated him more actually.

“I mean, to be fair, we were supposed to start searching for them two weeks ago.” Neil mumbled under his breath.

“Well, I didn’t see you eagerly looking for them earlier!” Max snapped back, almost glaring at his friend, who only shrugged in return.

Max didn’t sleep well and was kinda pissed. Or very much pissed. So yeah, yelling at his friends maybe wasn’t justified, but it was expected by them.

They spent another hour and a half rummaging through the snow with bare, in Max’s and Nikki’s case, hands and searching for pine cones. Why during the whole year there were a lot of them around, but when you needed them suddenly the whole forest and field was empty?

But gladly, after too long time spent in the freezing cold world, they had enough to fulfill crazy Daniel’s wish.

With three bags full of pine cones, they started their mighty journey back to the castle for some needed warm dinner.

“Hey Max…” Nikki suddenly appeared next to him – for a brief moment Max was sure she even apparated there – and grinned from ear to ear. “… What are your plans for Christmas?”

Christmas? Oh yeah, it was in less than a month. Max totally forgot about it. Or it would be more accurate to say that he tried not to think about it that much. It wasn’t the whole idea of Christmas that he hated, but the things that came with it – coldness in his parents’ eyes as they sat at the enormous dining table, not uttering even a single word to each other.

“Eh… probably the same as every year.” Max shrugged, hanging the bags on his wrist so he could hide his frozen palms inside his pockets. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I’m going to my dad for Christmas and was curious if you want to go with me? Neil will also visit, right?” The girl turned to their tall friend, who only shrugged in reply – which indicated that he agreed.

Max glanced at the girl and then hung his head down.

He didn’t want to show it, but the idea – a simple question, a will to hang out with him – warmed him so much inside that he was afraid it was visible on his cheeks in form of a soft, kinda pinkish, maybe even red blush smeared over his cheeks. It sent shivers of excitement running down his spine and made his fingers twitch in anticipation, but then it all crashed down when reality gnawed on him.

“I’m sorry, Nik…” Max grumbled. “But my parents will probably send someone to drag me back if I say I’m not going back home, because I’m visiting a friend.”

Even though they barely talked, his parents always expected Max to come back home for holidays and breaks – so they all could wear fancy clothes and go to galas thrown by the Ministry of Magic, showing perfect smiles of the perfect family that they oh so much weren’t. Max hated it.

Nikki’s smiling mouth turned upside down at that information.

“Ugh, can’t you lie to them that you need to stay at school and then come over to me?”

“I tried.” Max quickly said. “During the second year. They asked the headmaster if that was true and then sent a butler to drag me back home.” In the end, it hadn’t been the best Christmas he had had in his entire life. Maybe it had even been one of the worst ones.

“Oh…” This time Nikki’s smile fully dropped down, not even leaving a trace of it being there in the first place. “Well at least… think about it.”

Max nodded at that, knowing very well that thinking wouldn’t help in this situation.

When they were near the main entrance, and Max was just about to grab the handle, the door burst open and the three of them almost crashed into a figure cladded in black exiting the castle. There was a hesitation in the air when four people suddenly tried to fumble around each other, until actually all off them stopped moving altogether and Max could peek at the Potions teacher, clearly agitated, looking at them.

“Good morning, sir.” Neil said, finding the calm voice inside himself to speak, even though both Max and Nikki were still kinda surprised.

The blond-haired teacher glanced at them and frowned.

“Good morning.” Daniel mumbled, barely parting his lips as he studied each and every one of them. Then the grimace turned into a creepy smile when he glanced down at their hands. “Oh I see you finally finished your homework.”

Max absentmindedly stepped forward, getting in front of his friends and staring daggers (beautiful, poisonous daggers) at the teacher, who straightened his back and glared back.

Oh, yeah, they clearly disliked each other.

It felt like eternities passed with the two of them staring at each other, before Neil decided to butt in.

“Where are you going in such a rush, Mister Daniel?” He asked, raising his eyebrow and pointing out the fact that had got lost in their small staring combat.

The teacher blinked and then moved his gaze at Neil with his neck cracking as he tilted his head.

“Oh, I was just going to the greenhouse.” He said, mouth stretching into a smile. “David asked me for some potions and I was going to deliver them.”

Max’s eye twitched and oh! something in Daniel looking back at him told Max that the teacher had seen it.

Or worse… that he knew. That he knew all about Max’s heart, his secrets and hidden feelings and emotions.

(He hoped that Daniel could see and feel the hatred Max felt towards him.)

“So please excuse me.” Daniel chirped, then almost made a twirl around them and stomped through the fluffy snow, making new marks, to the greenhouse.

Max felt something inside of him burning and he wanted to run after Daniel to check, to see with his own eyes if what the teacher had said was true. However the soft voice of his friend brought him back to reality, tugging on his consciousness.

“Come on Max, let’s go.”

So they walked inside the castle.

***

It took two detentions before Max finally found the courage to ask:

“Did you order some potions from Mister Daniel?”

He had stopped cutting the ill leaves and now David had asked him to water the Aconites standing in the corner. David himself was dealing with the Fanged Geraniums, patting their leaves and singing softly to them as he plucked some unhealthy leaves and watered the soil beneath them.

(When Max had approached them earlier they had almost bit off his hand, but David knew how to approach them and made them act like sweet, loving puppies.)

David stopped humming and turned to Max, his hand brushing some spot on the plant’s head. Did they even have heads?

“Oh I did.” David said, grinning to him like the warm sun, even though the world was covered in a thick cover of snow and the star was hidden behind gray clouds. There was a beat of surprise levitating in the air, before another question followed. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” Max said, even though he knew it was a lie. But David didn’t need to know that.

David tilted his head (the movement so similar, yet so different than whenever crazy Daniel did it) and then turned it back to the Geranium, which was nudging his hand to get him back to the petting part again.

“Daniel makes a lot of potions to help my plants live through the winter.” David added, like an afterthought or some explanation of sort.

“Can’t you make them on your own?”

“Eh…” Max glanced back to see David scratching the plant under its chin. What? “I was never good at Potions. Almost every mixture exploded in my face.”

Max snorted under his nose at that, trying to imagine young David – well, younger David – screeching with his face covered in soot and sleeves of his robe burning heavily. Well it wasn’t so impossible to believe actually.

“It’s true. I was horrible at them.” David said, giggling under his breath.

God, the sound, the sound made Max’s heart flutter painfully inside his chest.

“At least you weren’t hated by the teacher.” Max added, glancing back but quickly turning back to move the stream of water to another pot.

“Daniel doesn’t hate you.”

“Yeah, right.” Max prolonged the last word, bending down a little to move the watering can a little bit further back. “And he totally isn’t looking like he wants to kill me all the time.”

There was a beat of silence, a brief moment filled with nothingness, before David spoke.

“Daniel just… has this kind of face. It doesn’t mean he hates you though.”

“Lie to yourself then.” Max said, not being able to bite his tongue in time to maybe even think that this kind of tone was not proper while talking with the teacher.

But David only huffed in reply and there was a soft whisper leaving his mouth:

“I don’t understand why no one believes me.”

***

To be fair, Max had asked his parents if he had to return home for Christmas. And two days later he got a reply, written in a gold ink on a brand new parchment.

We expect you home, Maxwell.

Nothing more, nothing less. So yeah, that was a giant ‘no’.

“And what did they say?’ Nikki asked, peeking from above the table at the paper in his hands.

Max passed her the letter and then occupied himself with eating his breakfast. It didn’t take long for Nikki to scan the letter, before a frown appeared on her face, wrinkling her forehead.

“They are a bunch of assholes.” Neil said, munching on a toast, next to Max. He probably already knew what they had written to him, even without reading. Max’s façade probably gave it out.

“Yeah…” Nikki mumbled and passed Max the parchment.

Max crumpled the letter and then took out his wand to cast a simple Incendio on it. The parchment lit up, burning thoroughly with quite a big flame, maybe too big for comfort. It was probably Max’s anger which was causing this, but he didn’t mind.

He expected it, yet he was disappointed.

So he watched the paper burn with kind of weird satisfaction sparkling in his eyes. Nikki shouted excitedly on the other side of the table and Neil only shook his head, but with a grin on his lips too. Many, many other heads turned to them, especially as the parchment was heavily burning on the table now, popping loudly every few seconds and shooting small, black scraps in the air, which were still being consumed by the sizzling fire even in the air.

Well, the fun had to be cut loose by a voice speaking above them.

“Max, Neil, Nikki, what is the meaning of this!?”

Oh Max knew this voice, he knew it pretty well.

Max only tilted his head back to stare at a kinda pissed, but mostly confused look on David’s face. His hands were rested on his hips as his eyes jumped from every one of them, only to rest back again at Max. The intensity of his gaze made Max’s throat clench.

Fuck!

“Eh, we’re…” Nikki started, prolonging every word. “… practicing?”

Suave, Nikki, very suave!

David blinked and then looked back at the girl.

“Practicing?” He parroted, rising his eyebrow.

“Uhm yeah for…” Nikki glanced at her side.

“For Defence Against the Dark Arts!” Neil next to them spoke up, glancing up at their teacher. “We are… going over some spells today.”

“Uh totally!” Nikki added, grinning from ear to ear and staring at David.

Max was… really impressed. The lie came out pretty good.

“Right…” David said, eyeing them all once again, only to let out a giant sigh. “Just… don’t do it in the Great Hall, please.”

“Sure can do!”

And with that David walked away to the teacher’s table with his green, dirty robe swishing after him.

Max let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding and then glanced at his friends.

“Well that went better than expected.”

The letter was still smoldering in the middle of the table.

***

With every day closer to Christmas Max was feeling worse and worse. It wasn’t even the giddy atmosphere in the air, it wasn’t the decorations scattered around the school (though yeah, the sparkling, colorful chains could be at fault here, because damn who had put them in bathrooms), it wasn’t the whole idea of the holiday per se that irritated him…

It was the anticipation clearly emanating from almost everyone. Every student was waiting for it, was counting the days till the break, was conversing loudly about plans – was doing everything with such big smiles on their faces that it made Max grimace.

But he wasn’t anticipating it. If he had to be perfectly honest, he wanted the holidays to finally be over.

Getting out of the buzzing with life school to hide in the greenhouse was comforting. Though Max wasn’t particularly sure if the calmness wasn’t only coming from the plants, but also from the redhead accompanying him there.

Because if he had to be honest, with some strange part of himself, David’s presence was comforting.

There were times when they worked in silence. David could feel whenever Max wasn’t in the mood to talk or when he preferred to listen. He didn’t push him to converse, he didn’t push him to do things. Once when Max had been particularly tired, he let him take a nap on the bench for the whole duration of detention without even uttering a word.

David’s soft hums trailing after him were soothing Max’s mind, his kind smiles directed at every plant, like they all were his best friends, were kinda adorable, his calm eyes whenever he explained something to Max were simply alluring – just the whole atmosphere of this place, the soft buzzes of water running somewhere, the delicate brushes of leaves above them, the flutters of wings coming from the birds perked up at the roof –

It all was mesmerizing.

(Though Max would deny thinking like that if someone asked.)

“Why the gloomy face?” David asked, giving Max quite enormous shears.

For a few seconds Max contemplated whether he should tell the man the truth, while he was playing with the gardening tool. In the end he snapped them hard and murmured:

“It’s because of Christmas.”

David stood up and pushed a wooden crate far under his desk.

“You hate Christmas, Max?”

“It’s not that I hate it.” Max said and then looked away. “I just… hate everything that comes with it.”

David turned to him, blinking a few times.

“Like the Christmas trees?”

“Like my parents.” Max quickly clarified, though yeah, some Christmas trees were quite too colorful to his liking.

“What about them?” David asked, tilting his head and grabbing his gloves from the desk to slip them on.

“Because they are a bunch of selfish pricks who drag me around parties, so we all can pretend that we are a big, happy family.” And they were not.

“Oh…” David murmured, glancing up at him, only to cast his gaze away the very next second.

They stepped out from David’s office into the main part of the greenhouse and walked through it. The bucket was hitting David’s leg with every step he took. There was some hesitation swarming in the air between them as they moved to the Wormwoods planted in long pots.

“Can’t you stay at school for the break then?” David finally asked, glancing at Max who had started to cut off the small branches, so they could be dried and turned into a Potion ingredient.

Max shook his head and then snapped the shears. Even though the branches were tini-tiny, it took a hella lot of strength to cut them off. Mighty little beasts.

(David had admitted that he didn’t like doing it, so Max had said that he would do it for him, though he also felt kinda bad for the poor plants.)

“If that was so easy, I wouldn’t return home at all.” Max mumbled and then, like an afterthought, he added. “Nikki invited me over to her home for Christmas.”

Why had he said that!? The words unconsciously had slipped past his lips, without his brain even fully processing whether he even should tell them! Boom and they had been out of his lips! Why, oh why!? David probably didn’t care about that!

It wasn’t like he even wanted to share this information! Why the words were suddenly leaving his lips so smoothly, with ease, when usually a crowbar was needed to crack him open!

David turned to him, stopping digging the ground for a second.

“Oh Max, that’s amazing! You totally should go!”

At that Max only could scoff.

“Yeah, that is not going to happen.”

“Why not? I’m sure if you explain the situation to your parents then –“

“No, David, you don’t understand. They won’t let me go to Nikki.” Max huffed, this time snapping a branch with one clean cut. The leaves fluttered under the force of the shears as Max’s voice rose a bit. “Because they are assholes who think they are above everyone else, especially people like Nikki. And they won’t let their precious son even identify with them.” He spited the words. The ‘precious’ and ‘son’ almost immediately burned his tongue and, oh God, it sounded so wrong to even think that they could talk about him like that.

(Maybe a few years ago it would have hurt him, but not now. Now he knew the truth and the words didn’t hurt, but brought him a kinda sick satisfaction.)

“Oh…” David mumbled.

Max felt that the teacher was staring at him, but he didn’t have it in himself to lift his head up.

For a few minutes they worked in silence – not the usual calm one, but a more vibrating one, because Max was still fuming with anger. His movements weren’t as steady as before and now he cut the branches using definitely too much force, but damn, he had to do something with his hands now.

He was mad.

Because, damn, he wanted to go to Nikki and not return back to the cold, empty and too pristine house he should call home, but was so far away from even mentioning it like one.

Even staying at school would be better. Hell, anything would be better.

(He honestly thought spending it with crazy Daniel would be better than returning home, but well, he had to think it over for a little bit more.)

“Can’t you say that you are forced to stay at school?” David quietly asked, eyes looking at him with worry hiding inside them.

Max swallowed slowly and moved the shears away from a branch that he wanted to cut next.

“No, that won’t work. I already tried. But they wanted some kind of confirmation and hell, I didn’t have that.” He mumbled. “Though now maybe I could fake some letter from a teacher.”

Because back when he had tried he had been a third year and hadn’t known that many spells. But now – as a sixth year – he could maybe know some useful ones. His mind was already swirling with ideas. Yeah, if he asked Neil for help then this could definitely work.

“No, Max, please don’t do it. If the school finds out that you faked a formal teacher’s letter you could be expelled.”

“Well, shit.”

This didn’t sound good. The last thing he wanted was being forced to spend the whole year at home. Yeah, this wasn’t really worth it.

Though maybe…

No, better not.

“So yeah, now you killed my last chances of getting out of my house, so thanks.” Max mumbled, glancing at his teacher with his mouth twitching, forming something like a smirk.

David looked at him and pouted. Pouted! Damn, he looked like a kicked puppy! A very sad, miserable kicked puppy, with drooping ears.

Max didn’t mean it!

But somehow apologizing would be kinda weird in this situation, and so un-Max like so he only turned around and moved the metal blades to another branch.

However leaving it like that didn’t seem too good either.

“Don’t dwell so much on it.” Max finally stated after few minutes. “I’m used to it.”

And somehow the look David gave him now made Max think that maybe it was the wrong thing to say in the end.

Somehow Max totally forgot that he had called David by his first name.

***

“What do you want for Christmas, Max?” Nikki asked, not really lifting up her head from the essay with which she had been dealing for at least two hours now. And she still missed two inches of text.

“Nothing.” Max said, and well, that was true. “And you?”

“A baby platypus.”

“A baby what?” Neil asked, rising his head from the book and looking kinda surprised. Okay, maybe very surprised. Bewildered even.

“A baby platypus.” Nikki said, puffing out her chest proudly. “You never wanted one?”

Neil glanced at Max, who could only shrug in reply.

“Not really.” The taller teen said. “But maybe you want something that is more… available?”

Nikki groaned and then laid her head down on the table between them.

“You’re no fun, guys. But okay, I’ll come up with something less cool!” She hummed and then looked up at the ceiling. The pen with which she had written (she despised using quill and getting ink all over her parchment and hands) landed between her mouth and nose as she swung back and forth on her chair.

She did it for almost three or so minutes, before she returned to them.

“Maybe a new bat!”

Max glanced at Neil who nodded in reply. This seemed like a good idea. They could buy a more expensive one together.

Neil’s present was easy. A book and he would be content with it. Though maybe after six years it could get boring and kinda predictable, but to be honest Neil insisted on them buying him books. He would simply just state what title he wanted.

That’s why his present was already secured under Max’s bed. No one really dared to even snoop around his things, so that was the safest place in the castle.

Though getting Nikki’s present two weeks before Christmas will be kinda though, but not impossible.

If he had to be honest, Max kinda liked buying Christmas gifts. Or well, maybe not buying it, because he hated the crowd that always occupied every shop near this day of the year. It was suffocating with bodies pressed close to you, pushing you around like some kind of a rag doll – when you only wanted to buy one thing that you already had in your hands.

But no, people were vicious.

So yeah, Max didn’t like buying presents per se, but giving them. Well, he hadn’t found it out until… well until he had actually started hanging out with Nikki and Neil.

(He kinda liked seeing the smiles stretching over their lips, accompanied by a soft glint sparkling inside their eyes.)

However receiving presents was something totally different. He liked them (he would even dare to say that he even loved them), but he always felt uncomfortable when he was opening a package for him. Only for him. Bought and packed just for him.

This idea was so weird, that it always made Max simply… freeze.

Gladly he doubted his parents would get him anything or anything nice for that matter. They rarely exchanged presents and Max was okay with that. He didn’t even want to get them anything.

(Because gifts were something special.)

Max lifted his head when he heard Nikki groan loudly, messing her hair with the pen sticking out of her mouth. Oh she still didn’t finish the essay.

“Neil, do you think –“

“No.” Neil quickly said, flipping a page of his book.

Max snorted under his nose as he put his elbow on the table and then leaned his chin on his hand. He glanced at the blond haired boy with one raised eyebrow.

Neil looked at him and then gazed at Nikki, who was now staring at him with puppy eyes. Max didn’t even have to see the girl to know she was doing it. Neil’s slowly crumbling certainty, clearly visible on his façade, was enough for a proof.

In the end, Max knew what would happen.

Neil sighed and then moved closer to the desk.

“Show me the book.”

***

David was acting weird.

Okay, David was one of the weirdest teachers in the school. Daniel wasn’t weird, Daniel was creepy. Gwen wasn’t weird, Gwen was… well, Max wasn’t even sure how to describe her. Probably irritating.

But David was beyond the scale. With him being optimistic and smiling at everyone he passed on the corridor, he had to earn himself a place beyond the scale.

(At first Max had hated it, his mind hadn’t been able to stand the optimism clearly seeping from him, radiating warmness and happiness around. But with time –)

However David wasn’t always like that. There were times when his mood was down, when he would still smile at students he passed in corridors, but with something terribly forced behind the sparkling eyes.

It repeated itself every year. To this point every student knew it was there. Winter – near Christmas – always brought a significant drop of the Herbology teacher’s mood. And people would blame it on the man being sad that so many students would move away for the break. But Max knew it wasn’t true. Because if it was, the same thing would happen near summer. But it didn’t, so that simply couldn’t be true. There had to be different reasons.

But no one asked and Max wouldn’t be the first one to do so. Even though he kinda wanted to.

He had noticed the differences between David’s smiles, getting smaller and smaller with every passing day, closer to Christmas. He had seen the light – the spark, the burning with passion flame – disappearing from his eyes, dimming out, getting smaller, tiny with every passing minute. He had noticed the shoulders dropping down, the posture freezing, the heavy, gray, dirty, disgusting bags appearing under his eyes.

No one knew the reasons, but everyone knew it was happening.

So Max hadn’t been surprised to see David with the similar symptoms whenever he had visited him for detention. He had seen David locking himself out, he had seen the light slowly disappearing from the eyes, he had seen David losing focus and staring at nothing in general, but in the same time looking like he was reliving thousands of memories altogether.

Max had seen it all.

(And even though his heart hurt, he couldn’t do much about it)

So he was quite surprised when one day – very close to Christmas – he stepped into the greenhouse to the image of David smiling from ear to ear.

Yeah, that was a peculiar sight.

“Hey, Max. We have a beautiful day today, don’t you think?”

Max could only stare back as he got rid of his jacket, only to throw it in a random direction as always. It landed on a chair standing in the corner.

“If by beautiful you mean cold as…” Ah, not a curse word, not a curse word. But it still was David. “… shit, then you’re right.”

David chuckled, peeking at him from behind a tall tree. Even though it was freezing outside, it was always warm inside the greenhouse. It felt like the outside weather – the whole world – had no ability to control this glass building. Every snowflake on a jacket immediately died while stepping inside, every rain drop disappeared in the atmosphere, every sun ray was doubled while getting through the vitreous ceiling.

“It could be cold, but it’s still nice.”

“Tell yourself that.”

David was smiling for the whole day. He was humming some sickening, sweet song under his nose, moving around the greenhouse to the rhythm of the beat.

Seeing him in such a good mood near the Christmas break was well… definitely weird.

And Max couldn’t tear his gaze away. Of course he couldn’t. He couldn’t look away from the sudden, positive spark dancing in David’s eyes. He couldn’t stop staring at the pink, stretched lips. He couldn’t stop looking at the body moving from one corner to the other, with hips occasionally tilting and swirling to the beat of the music coming from the earphones.

It felt like every worry was lifted from David’s shoulders, who moved unpredictably, swirling the wand around and rearranging things. His hand delicately touched every flower, every leaf, every branch, accompanied by soft words leaving his mouth. The plants swirled around him, some even moved when he touched them, leaning into his caring touch and soft words.

Even the most dangerous ones – a Venomous Tentacula – curled one of its vines around David’s wrist when he tried to move his hand away after petting it, only to bring it back.

David laughed – that stupid, honest, and just so beautiful laugh and…

Max’s hand twitched and he accidentally spilled some soil onto the ground. Well it was soil and it was on the ground, so there wasn’t much he could do, only kick it around.

“Everything okay?” David asked from the other side of the greenhouse, giggling when the vine around his hand moved higher and tickled his cheek.

For Max it would be terrifying and, to be honest, he was keeping himself as far away from the venomous and quite fatal plant as he could. But David was treating it like a child.

(Max even once had seen him playing with it by throwing colorful hoops on the vines! Like how!? Max was sure that the plant would attack anyone who would get too close to it, but David was patting it with no problems.)

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.” Just really fucking astonished, Max concluded, staring with wide eyes at the vine that slowly started to retract itself from David’s cheek. Creepy. “I just… noticed that you are in a very good mood today.”

The red haired teacher blinked and then like some kind of an understanding appeared on his face, or maybe some kind or revelation, because he turned to the Tentacula and scratched it under one curly vine.

“Yeah, I guess I am.” The man stated, mouth still smiling.

There was another brief silence between them – in which Max managed to put the pot down and start pouring seeds onto the soil in it.

“Is it bad? I mean me… being happy.” David suddenly asked, voice weirdly quiet and empty of all the happiness it had possessed a few seconds ago.

He asked this question like he expected Max to know why he usually was so sad around this time of the year. But Max didn’t know why David was acting like that – no one really knew – so he wasn’t sure how to answer.

But then David glanced at him, some weird fear hiding behind his lush, green, like forest in the morning eyes and Max decided he didn’t like it. He didn’t like seeing David so devastated, so lost, so empty of all these positive vibes that were clearly vibrating in his core.

“No.” Max licked his lips. “It’s not bad. I think most of us prefer to see you smiling than moping around.”

Max quickly looked away, not being able to stare back at the teacher. There was a swelling sensation in his chest – spreading from the center of his body, to his fingers and toes, and making him very aware of everything around him.

A lone bird chirped as it landed on the window ceiling above them.

“Thank you, Max. It really means a lot.”

For the rest of the detention they didn’t talk much, only worked in comfortable silence, with the humid, warm atmosphere floating between them. Soon after David returned to humming under his nose and Max’s muscles relaxed to this point he almost forgot that it was his last detention before he will have to move back to his home for the break.

Unfortunately the thought returned when David grinned at him and said:

“I hope you’ll have a happy break!”

Max stopped buttoning his coat and glanced at his teacher with one raised eyebrow.

“I doubt that any time spent with my parents could be called happy… but thanks.” He said. “You too, Mister David.”

The man blinked at that and tilted his head, like he was unsure about something or was recalling some memory. But the lost look quickly disappeared and the same soft, kinda childish grin started to dance in the corner of his lips.

“I have a feeling you’ll enjoy this break, Max!”

Max doubted it, but decided not to repeat himself out loud.

***

“Max, are you sure you really can’t come over, even for a day?” Nikki asked, staring at him again with these puppy eyes. “Even Neil is coming over for one day!”

Neil looked at her from above his book and sighed.

“Nikki, you’re making me sound like I don’t want to go.”

“Shhh, Neil.”

Max looked up from his half-eaten breakfast.

“Nikki, you know if I could I would leave my folks behind and go right to your house.” Max said and then moved the sausage around on his plate. “But they expect me home tomorrow.”

He could escape his home and go to Nikki for one day, but to be honest he didn’t really want to know what his parents would do in this situation. And he didn’t want to give Nikki more problems than she already had.

And Max’s parents were vengeful.

Nikki opened her mouth, but Neil shook his head, so she closed it and looked down at her empty plate.

Max looked up at her. He hated seeing her so down. The grimace didn’t fit her face, a grin, stretched from ear to ear fitted her more.

“Listen, Nikki –“

But the rest of his words – he wasn’t really sure what he wanted to say in the end – were killed when something smacked Max right in the face. He cursed loudly, then opened his eyes when he heard a loud flapping sound and glanced down.

Oh, a letter.

A letter? One day before Christmas?

Max immediately recognized the envelope – the fancy yellowish paper with a few black swirls in two corners. His parents had written him a letter. But why? One day before Christmas? What could they want more? Did they want him to go back home early?

Max furrowed his eyebrows, grabbed the envelope and turned it. With his fingers he bent the paper and took out the parchment resting inside.

One heart beat – and he flung it open.

There was silence above them as Max’s eyes moved through the words, sentences, fast, faster and faster with every second. He knew Nikki and Neil were glancing at him curiously, even trying to look at what his parents had written to him, but Max moved the letter closer to his eyes, because he couldn’t believe it. Because this couldn’t be true!

His heart beat so fast, so heavily, so loud inside his chest and ears and, oh God, it was painful, it really hurt, but the pain was drowned by the happiness quickly spreading from the center of his body to all his nerves, making him almost shiver with excitement running through his blood.

He couldn’t believe it, he couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be true! But if it was true, then –

Neil grabbed the letter.

– someone had to help him.

“Read it out loud!” Nikki shouted from the other side of the table.

Neil cleared his throat and started reading.

“Dear Maxwell, we hope you’re doing good… blah blah blah… We met with Minister… blah blah blah…“ Neil’s eyes jumped from one paragraph to another, quickly scanning the letters written there. ”… we were very sad when we received a letter from your teacher informing us that you won’t be able to come home for the Christmas break!?” Now Neil shrieked these words out, at this point some students glanced at them, interested in what was going on there.

Nikki opened her mouth and glanced at Max.

“Of course, we would be enamored if you could return home, but we understand you now have more important things to do at school. We are so proud of you.” Neil blinked, like he couldn’t really believe what he was reading and then glanced at Max, who felt like he burst.

“… blah blah… we wish you a Merry Christmas and expect you to behave…” Neil quickly finished the letter.

The silence took over the table as everyone processed the words written there. Nikki only gaped with mouth wide open, Neil looked like his brain stopped working and Max…

Max felt like he was flying.

“But how?” Neil mumbled.

I have a feeling you’ll enjoy this break, Max!

Max quickly lifted his head to look at the teacher’s table. No, the familiar mop of red hair wasn’t there. So this meant there was only one other place where he could be.

Max quickly stood up, grabbed the letter and jumped over the bench, only to run out from the Great Hall.

“Max, where are you going?!” Neil shouted after him, but Max had no time to answer as the wind rushed past him.

Without a coat, he jumped out the castle, feeling the coldness trying to nip on his cheeks and eyelids, but he didn’t care. His heart worked so hard, pushing blood through his veins that he barely even felt a hint of the cold which tried to slow him down.

But he felt like he could soar.

The greenhouse was getting bigger and bigger with every step that was bringing him closer and closer – his brain was a mess, a tangled, swirling mess!

Max grabbed the door, panting like crazy, and he swung them open, almost crashing them into the wall. The glass shivered heavily, but gladly remained in its place.

And David was there, in the middle of the greenhouse, taking off his dirty gloves.

“Oh, hey Max. What are you doing here so ear–“

“Did you do it?!” Max shouted, stepping inside and quickly moving to David.

“What did I do?” The red haired male asked, tilting his head.

Max marched forward, faster and faster with every second, with heart beating heavily and so so loudly in his ears that it drowned all other sounds. In just a few steps he was in front of David, definitely invading his personal space (which he wasn’t sure David actually had). The man took a small step back, but his façade didn’t change. It looked more like an automatic response than anything else.

Max was close, so close that he could count every small freckle on David’s cheeks.

“My parents? What did you tell my parents?” Max asked, taking another step forward, leaning close, closer. He was so close that he could smell the soil residing on David’s coat.

The teacher blinked.

“Oh.” He said and then licked his lips, suddenly looking unsure, hesitant, with eyes darting to the side. “Well… you looked quite devastated when you talked about returning home. So I wrote to them and told that you are a part of a very important project and have to stay at school to work on it.” David exhaled slowly through his nose and Max felt a movement near his chest. “I’m sorry, I thought that would make you happy.” The teacher sucked in his bottom lip and bit it, eyes returning to Max. “I’m sorry, if you want me to write to them –”

Max wasn’t a person who liked personal contact. Okay, yeah, maybe that was wrong. He didn’t like people touching him and vice versa when he didn’t know them. When he knew someone and liked them he wouldn’t mind some high-fives, small ruffles of hair here and there, or even tiny hugs – especially from Nikki.

With David it was different. When Max had noticed the change in his feelings, he deliberately had tried not to get too close to David, because he wasn’t sure he could control himself around the man.

But there were times when his urges and emotions took over his brain, shutting down all logical ways of thinking.

And before his mind could even whisper that maybe it was wrong, that maybe he shouldn’t do it, that maybe he would reveal his feelings, he simply moved unconsciously. Something in him snapped and before he could even process what was happening his hands were moving, wrapping themselves around David and bringing him in for a hug – a tight embrace that resonated inside his bones with shivers running down his spine.

David squeaked – or at least it sounded like that – before his mouth was pressed tightly into Max’s shirt as the boy tightened his hold on the man.

A silence spread between them – a thick, kinda heavy silence in which Max could hear every soft movement, every delicate whisper of a plant, every far away chirp of a bird. He could hear and feel David’s breath on his shirt. He could sense David’s heartbeat speeding up, only for it to slowly – step after step – return to its normal pace of beating.

“Max?” David’s finally asked, tilting his head, so he could speak. The movement made David’s hairs tickle Max’s nose and, oh, he was burying his face in the fluffy red curls.

Max had to say something, but he didn’t know what. He felt like every word, sentence, idea wasn’t enough. Like no matter what he would say, it still wouldn’t be enough.

“Thank you.” Max finally murmured into David’s hair, feeling the warmness inside his chest boiling, getting bigger and bigger with every second to the point Max was sure he could explode. “Thank you.”

There was another moment of silence in which nothing happened, but then there was shuffling near Max’s body and he felt a soft touch of David’s hands on his back.

“No problem.” David’s mumbled.

At this point Max’s brain finally started to catch up with the flow of the events. Max was hugging David – his teacher. Someone could see them! And get the wrong idea! And then David could have problems!

But damn, he didn’t want to move away, he didn’t want to get away from the warmness seeping from David’s body into his bones, he didn’t want to move away from the ghost of a hot breath coming from the red haired male, he didn’t want to lose the feeling of the body beneath his palms.

He wanted to stay like that for few more seconds, maybe minutes, maybe –

No, he had to move away.

So with a heavy heart, Max untangled his palms from David’s waist and slowly stepped away. The feeling of the teacher’s hands leaving his back made his stomach drop and, damn, how he wanted to step forward and return to what they had had a few seconds ago.

David’s face was hinted with pink color, smeared over his cheeks like some kind of paint, but he didn’t look fazed by the situation. Had so many students suddenly hugged him that he had stopped being fazed by it?

(Max didn’t really like that idea, but David was known for listening to everyone.)

David’s hair was kinda ruffled, with the strands sticking in weird directions, even weirder ones than usual.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong. I still can’t let you go to Nikki for the whole break, but… two or three days won’t hurt anyone.” David said, the same goofy smirk returning to his lips.

And, God, Max wasn’t sure he could fall more for that man.

Yet he did.

TBC

#Maxvid #Mavid #Hogwart!AU #my art?#my stories?#Wait For It #It took me way too long to finish xDDD

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