There's A Hole In The Wall ~Seth~

[oscarpeterson]

Having asked for the day off, an impressive feat for Oscar at any rate, Oz had spent the morning clearing the masses of books from his floor onto any avaible surface he could find. Today was the day he and Seth were going to hang his shelves up. Which meant actually being able to get to his walls, which meant moving all those books. Those many books which had accumulated over the years. He'd forgotten that he had some of them! He'd also found books he had no memory of acquiring.

There had been some good finds though. He'd even found a couple lizard books he could give to Seth. And Jurassic Park, just for a joke. The books he intended on giving to Seth had been placed on his pillow, away from the other piles so he could find them. Being a little OCD, Oscar had decided to organise his books when moving them, so they'd look good on his shelves. And also so it'd be easier to put them back on. It had taken him ages to put them all into alphabetical order.

He'd done it though, and without a single break too. Not that Oscar ever took breaks, why should he deserve a break? No rest for the wicked and all. Occording to whatever world he resided in, Oz was "the wicked" to the majority. Not that that mattered very much to him anymore. Oz had Seth, so long as there was Seth he was content. Oscar's only fear at the moment was, what happened when Seth left? Oz knew he wouldn't be able to stay in Hogwarts without him, but would Seth have room for in him in his life after Hogwarts? He couldn't go on just being the quiet guy with the broom in the background forever.

But what else could he do? Oscar was lost in his thoughts as he took the shelves from under his bed - where they'd stayed since returning to Hogwarts after Christmas. He knew of Seth's plans of maybe going to University, could Oscar follow there? He didn't exactly have any qualifications. He'd passed his GCSEs, barely, but what were they in comparison to a degree. Maybe he was just forever going to be the broom guy.

A knock at the door brought Oscar sharply out of those bleak thoughts. Never before had he been so grateful for the sound of knuckles against wood. There used to be a time when he feared that very sound. But today it had saved him from an afternoon of depression. And there was the added bonus that hopefully his best friend would be the other side of the door. It crossed Oscar's mind as he travelled the width of his office that it could be Scrivens or McGonagoll saying that a couple of kids had exploded some frogs and all hands on deck were needed. He really hoped it was Seth. For once - shock, shock, horror, horror - Oscar wanted to spent the day his way.

[Seth Hevulen]

Adding one final book to the pile of his bed side table, Seth could safely say he was unpacked. It had taken him a while to do, mainly because his trunk had been a complete unorganised mess. It would have been easier had he not just thrown everything in the trunk but he had been running late and didn’t have the time to be neat about it, much to Oscar’s complete horror on seeing the mess.

Now he was done, Seth looked at the time, he had ten minutes to get up to Oscar’s room in order to help him put up his new old shelves. Checking around his neck his cold fingers rested on the chilling chain of the present Jazmyn had given him, and the rough cord of the good luck charm Oscar had presented him with. Smiling to himself, he made his move, making sure the cord was visible for Oscar to see when they met. He wanted the guy to know that he never took it off, and that it was special to him.

On his journey Seth came across many people on their way to or from the library having done or needing to do any last minute homework before lessons commenced the next day. Seth had successfully managed to do complete his at some point during the holidays. How and when he had no idea, he didn’t have much recollection of doing it, he just knew that he had. He was too pre-occupied with the progress Oscar had made, progress he had been scared the caretaker might lose. But asking for a day off? Well he hadn’t lost it yet.

On arriving at his friend’s door, Seth quickly checked if anybody was watching him too closely before knocking on the door. Not that he expecting Oscar to have company, he only knocked to be polite. If too many people were watching then maybe one day he would just slip in unannounced to stop the hype in that bloody paper. What happened to the days where nobody bothered themselves with what Seth did? All of a sudden he was apart of this huge ‘scandal’, and suddenly people were interested in him. Not something he prided himself in it had to be said.

Seth smiled at his friend as he opened the door, mumbling a quick hello before quickly stepping in. Formalities had long since gone between them, especially was people were so keen on watching, “Alright?” he enquired once he was passed the now closed door. He eyed the piles of books that Oscar had moved in order for them to position his bookshelf, even when they would have been in disarray in Seth’s possession they were neatly stacked. If Seth had cared to look he would have noticed they were alphabetically stacked.

[oscarpeterson]

Being rather organised, Oscar had unpacked the night he'd returned from the Heluvens. To be honest, Oz was the sort of person who got panicky if he didn't unpack straight away - but was that really a surprise? Oscar panicked at anything and everything really. It was amazing he'd made it this far in life without having a major panic attack or something. As of yet, he'd managed to internalise any panics and turn them into the demoralising thoughts which littered his mind. Thankfully, Seth was helping to clear those - but a life time habit was hard to shift.

It was shifting though. Even Oscar was beginning to see a difference. Never before would he have given a gift with a joke behind it. Never before would he have spent Christmas at someone else's house! If someone had told him a year ago that this would be happening, Oscar may have actually laughed in their face - be damned of the consequences! (Or at least waited until they'd left to laugh, either way.) Oscar got this funny feeling in his stomach when he thought about how much he'd changed over the past few months. It wasn't the nervous buzz, he knew that feeling all too well. He wasn't quite sure, but he believed it was happiness.

With Seth, he was happy. Despite what the sham of a newspaper wrote, despite the idle whispers of students, despite his own self inflicted misery! Oscar was happy - and he couldn't quite believe it. He was stil waiting for that sinking moment when he woke up and found that Seth, the last few months and his happiness was all some cruel and elaborate dream his mind concopted. But when he opened the door, he was saved from that inkling of doubt. Seth was at his door with a smile and mumbled hello. Oz quickly stepped to the side to let seth slip in, as unnoticed as possible. The newspaper and the whispers may not be affecting his happiness, but it was still annoying.

As Seth moved into his office, Oscar shut the door then scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, you?" He'd moved on from one word answers to two word answers - sometimes including an interrogative. It was a big improvement, considering how he didn't actually like giving one word answers. Unless to Seth - once warmed up, Oscar could almost talk at a normal human level, responding and questioning and everything. Oscar's development could be construed as someone who'd just come out of a coma or something and was having trouble adjusting to the world around him.

He went to the shelves, propped neatly against a little bit of spare wall, grabbing his tool box on the way. "How are we going to do this? Where they going?" Seth's opinion on anything mattered a lot to Oscar, but sometimes he genuinely didn't know - like where to put the shelves. He knew how to put them up - what kind of caretaker didn't know how to put up shelves? - it was the where that was vexing him.

[Seth Hevulen]

Seth smiled at his friend, now the door was shut firmly behind him and he was away from the prying eyes of the annoying students, he pulled his best friend into a hug. Just as he had many times over the last few weeks. The Christmas holidays had seen the pair get a lot closer than they had previously been. They were more in sync than they had been, they had spent every minute of every hour of every day together, and in doing so learnt more about the others mannerisms and exactly how they would react to anything.

”I’m good, fed up of people pointing and giggling, already,” it’s not like he hadn’t noticed. The second he had stepped foot through the pillar between Platforms 9 and 10 people had been looking at them. He’d known it and he had ignored it. Now they were back at school, he avoided the common room as always, but when he had walked through he could feel their eyes on him. ”But whatever, they need lives,” he commented as he turned away, eyes catching on the shelves and smiling to himself, sub-consciously reaching for the cord around his neck and fiddling with it.

Seth looked around the room. All the walls, all the possibilities. He knew it came down to what Oscar wanted at the end of the day, his organisational manner was different to Seth’s in a number of different ways, for starters he actually had one. Seth considered where he would have them, his shelves at home were above his desk at the end of his bed. But Oscar’s room was differently lain out to his. His desk wasn’t at the end of his bed and putting the shelves above it would put them in the middle of the wall, which to Seth wasn’t right, but to Oscar that might be what he liked.

Seth looked back around to Oscar and shrugged, ”Above the desk, above the bed, on the floor in between. I mean they don’t even have to go up!” But ‘up’ was funny. ‘Up’ was why Seth was even there. He was there to help Oscar put his shelves on the walls. He wouldn’t need him if they were just going to rest on the floor! Seth sighed, scratching the back of his head he looked around the room again.

Had he been at home and he had had any random ideas, like to put them on the wall above the bed, he would have jumped on said object in order to indicate his plan, but this was Oscar’s room. It was neat and organised and if you ignored the piles of books, incredibly tidy. He couldn’t just go and jump on things, ”Wherever it suits you best,” Seth finally said, stuffing his hands into his trouser pockets.