Taste of Youth

I had been sent away with the unfortunate group of boys much to everyones dismay. I was glad I didn’t have to wade through my brothers life here. It might have been different if they had been female, it would be different if I was good with people. But they weren’t female and I was terrible at being social. Liam would have been better at this. Liam was better at everything.

“So you’re Professor Rein’s sister?” Lupin asked a mug of hot chocolate held out before him like a peace offering.

I nodded slowly, balancing the steaming mug on my knee enjoying the way it felt a little too precarious. Like everything else right now. The lot of them started a conversation about my brothers classes and I stopped listening. They seemed happy, they seemed to like him. It was easy to forget we were related. I sipped at the sludge in my cup letting the burn settle the nerves in my stomach. The hollow ache filled a little bit and I held the mug tight to my chest. Chocolate cured everything.

“I guess Moony’s not the only one who thinks so.”

I blinked, refocusing on the room around me and frowned at Black for a moment before everything registered in my head. Lupin looked uncomfortable and the others slowly settled into the same way the longer I kept quiet. Why was speaking so hard? Salem was easier, everyone spoke for me. I blinked a few more times and shook my head to clear it.

“Sorry, I’m a little - spacey.” My lips shifted sideways, “Not curable by chocolate unfortunately.”

“Give it a little more time, it’ll work.” The short boy next to me grinned wide, ”Always does.”

I smiled softly pushing my hair away from my face. They talked to me brightly about the pranks they had planned and asked me excited questions about Salem. It was easy, surprisingly easy just to talk to them about things that didn’t matter. We talked about summer vacation and our plans for what they called seventh year. Peter showed me how to play Exploding Snap and laughed when I fell out of my chair to avoid eyebrow removal. Lupin and I discussed candy making and mythology until James decided to raise a chess challenge.

Maybe I could do this, talk to strangers, function in normal situations. I could be Liam, I could be that easy going, neurotic free person. I could. I laughed with them while James did a victory lap around the common room. Laughed when he flopped next to a pretty redhead grinning and laughing and getting pushed off onto the floor. Something warm spread in my stomach and I was thankful that I could feel it.