knight of the sun

He raised an eyebrow as he witnessed the pink returning to the slytherin’s hair and snorted at his statement in a feeble attempt to hide the annoying fact that he had lost. Again.

“Pfft please you were just lucky you caught the snitch.” his tongue still felt heavy and he shook his head to snap out of it, forcing him to stumble closer to his nemesis. “But yes… I am sure you have noticed how our darling Céleste has been a bit off? Distracted maybe?” his lips stretched into a grin and his voice lowers to an almost a purr as he kept stepping closer, a task proven difficult with the ammount of booze in his system. “With all that tongue in her mouth?” he continued and waved his fingers in front of Elio’s mouth with a chuckle, wishing to see his hair change, wanting to piss him off the same way he pissed Castor off with his smugness.

But it also made his heart shake with anger again just by mentioning it. Recalling the way Jihyuck smirked and kissed her. It only made sense to Castor. That relationship was only holding Céleste and Castor’s team back since they kept losing to the point that even Hufflepuff was playing better than them and that was absolutely unforgiveable. He needed his star player back.

He also wanted Jihyuck.

He daringly picked at a few strands of Elio’s hair before drapping an arm heavily around his shoulders with a wicked grin. Wow, alcohol really made him braver than usual.

“Now lets go straight to the point… You wish it was you instead of Jihyuck right?”

It took every fiber in Elio’s being to keep himself from stepping back in absolute disgust or simply charm the drunk Gryffindor away from his personal space with a quick swish of his wand. He’d rather put up with booze breath and annoying demeanor from Castor than showing he was affected in anyway by his words or presence.

He huffed at the other’s words, obviously affected, as the image of Jihyuck leaning down to kiss Céleste still burned fresh on the back of his mind.

“Could you be any more curt in the way you put things,” he commented with a wry smile, carefully swatting Castor’s hand away from his face only for the other to pick up some strands of his hair (how dare he) and then drape an arm around Elio’s shoulders.

Uncomfortable would be an euphemism to describe Elio at that moment.

Castor was right though, if he was being honest. Everyone knew Elio had been crushing on Céleste for the longest time and that the Ravenclaw boy was the last person he could stand around his crush. 

“Chris kept the photo, it was blurry but it really looked like me,” Pollux shrugs. “But nobody knows, it all happened on the last day of September, i’m sure of that, what i’m not sure is who had the camera and why did it vanish to now show up like this,” he makes a vague gesture towards the camera.

Pollux moves his hand to take hold of the kelp between his thumb and forefinger, tossing it to the side short after.

“I don’t doubt you, Elio,” he says while trying to rub off some of the stains with his thumb. The metal felt cold and almost rusty-textured despite not being rusty yet. 

“What’s your plan for this again? Mind if i just…” he pulls the camera closer and begins dismantling it, piece by piece, pulling them apart expertly in a way not even he knew he was aware how to do even before Elio gets to say anything about it. 

In short of two minutes, the camera is completely torn to pieces he opts to display orderly before Elio’s eyes, one piece standing out more than the others, not because it was clean but because it didn’t belong there.

“Will you look at that,” Pollux comments in a low mumble, pushing the odd piece forth closer to Elio. “Doesn’t it look familiar?”

The object in question was a simple silver ring with runes engraved on it, runes that spelled nothing other than “seeking prophecies” - not that Elio would know, Slytherin moron had picked Astronomy over Runes. 

But Pollux knew what it meant, and also that it was Junjie’s ring, the one he tended to use on his index finger that had been offered by his mother.

“I guess this is interesting, I dunno,” Pollux says with a smug scoff, then leaning back on his chair.

Elio kept his mouth shut as he watched Pollux dismantle the camera. There was just something odd about it, like since when and how had Pollux learned his ways around Christopher’s camera? 

Last he’d checked, Pollux was something of a klutz around technology, to the point his own phone was a super outdated model.

Opting to ignore that detail, he pressed his lips together in a thin line as he inspected the pieces one by one; the lenses were all cracked, possibly due to the pressure of the bottom of the lake, and all else had suffered from water damage, leaving the oddity standing out: the ring was pristine clean.

Elio carefully picked it up and inspected it in his palm.

Junjie had never really disclosed the meaning of those runes nor why would the ring mean to him as much as it did. It was now bugging Elio how he had missed the fact the damned thing was missing, seldom anything escapes his watchful eye.

But then again, he hadn’t ever felt the need to keep an eye on his roommate, he had deemed Junjie trustworthy. At times moody, sure, also unpredictable, but never someone to hide something like this from him.

It was both a prick in his trust and a trigger to his suspicion and curiosity.

Elio puts down the ring glances at the Gryffindor sitting across from him. 

Pollux had always been a wild card, in fact, they had been enemies at some point, however, since the two became friends, Pollux has never lied to Elio, considering the current circumstances, perhaps it’d be wiser for Elio to keep his strongest alliance.

“You think he has anything to do with this? Junjie, I mean.” he asks, bringing his hand up to his hair and ruffling it, feeling the subtle tingle in his scalp indicating his hair had changed colour - tiredness was truly taking a toll on him. 

The Three Broomsticks

After the Quidditch game

He hated to lose. Especially when it’s against Slytherins.

He stumbled his way closer to the back of the pub, hoping the discreet place would be enough to take a breather from everyone for a minute or two. It’s one of the downsides of being the captain and almost a celebrity in his school, the need to always be polite, smile, laugh along to stupid jokes that weren’t funny at all was constant. It was nice to put down the mask once in awhile.

He winked and raised his glass, lips curling in a wide grin at his best friend Céleste. He knew she was also feeling as sour as him after the loss, after all she was equally as competitive as him (if not more). Castor felt a wave of relief and happiness as she smiled amused at Castor, who was slumped on a chair with probably one of the goofiest grins thanks to the alcohol, and waved her fingers back. 

Man, Castor was just relieved they had managed to patch things over the last week after he had been an asshole to his friend. He yelled at her, picked on her over practice and pretty much dumped all his worries and frustration, including their defeats on his friend unfairly. Thankfully he came to his senses and managed to apologise properly and open up about his troubles the other week after their win. The celebrated after and all was well again, to Castor’s relief.

He watches a familiar figure approaching and Castor’s heart leaps only to sink soon after when he sees her boyfriend. 

Jihyuck had a lazy grin as he looked around before leaning in to whisper something in Céleste’s ear with a small smirk, which in turn made the girl giggle sheepish behind her hand. Castor’s fingers tightened around his glass and his smile faltered on his lips, a wave of jealousy and plain irritation made his blood rush to his face as he watched the intimate exchange between the couple. Jihyuck’s eyes never left a certain part of the bar as the couple exchanged some words and Castor could hardly believe his eyes when Jihyuck’ smirk widens and the beautiful Ravenclaw leans in to press a long kiss to Céleste’s lips.

Castor felt breathless and scowled at the scene, vision clouded with bitter jelousy as the boy pulled away with a bright grin and stared pointedly at someone else across the room. The pink haired captain and nemesis of Castor’s from Slytherin, who was also watching the couple with a strained expression. It was quickly replaced by his usual smug grin as someone next to him spoke yet he excused himself after a moment, quickly downing the rest of his drink, grabbing another one and moved with ease towards the back exit, not even noticing Castor’s gaze on him.

Suddenly everything made sense. Dating was obviously a bad thing for Céleste, it distracted her. Gryffindor had never lost these many games before and if Castor wanted to keep his reputation as captain of mighty Gryffindor he had to do something.

Castor was suddenly on his feet, being able to work through the sudden wave of dizziness and pushing through the crowd, he followed Elio outside into the quiet, cold alley as a bad idea starts to form in his brain. It was stupid, he knew it was stupid but he was tired. He wanted something to go right for him at least once.

“You.” he calls out in a surprisingly steady voice, pointing at Elio’s back and swallowing the rest of his drink in one go, grimacing slightly as he waits for the slytherin to turn around to face him.

“We needa talk, sunshine. It’s about Céleste.” 

Celebrating their victory in that specific pub had been a decision Elio quickly grew to regret.

Don’t get him wrong, by any means was he displeased with all the attention and all the cheering, it’s just that he was used to a more orderly type of celebration, a fancier one if you may. 

He’d only abide to this specific type of common party after a few drinks, and unfortunately he was short of those, the same couldn’t be said about his star player however, Mark was on some extreme level of embarrassing after only two glasses of god knows what.

Annoyed with Mark’s imitation of a monkey, Elio decided to split from the sea of green uniforms and scarves.

He was forcing himself to stay sober to keep an eye on his friends. Everyone had been behaving in a suspicious manner lately, but also, he was trying to keep an eye on Céleste, having eavesdropped on Castor reprimanding her the previous game. The girl certainly needn’t to deal with her captain’s shortcomings that way, and if Elio could ever come to play a knight in shining armor role by stepping in her defense, he would.

His eyes quickly skimmed the crowded space; he spotted Christopher chatting with a bunch of girls from different houses, probably from the same year; Vincent searching for someone (Elio could only hope it wasn’t him); Junjie staring at a glass, probably thinking, definitely about something Elio wouldn’t care to know, maybe a card was feeling sad or whatever. And finally, the Gryffindor duo in a corner.

Castor seemed to be calm, despite having lost. That’s a first, he thought. He seemed to be talking to a girl, and Elio really didn’t need to go around to see it was Céleste - as creepy as it was, he could spot her in any crowd from any angle, no other girl’s hair curled that delicately at the ends.

He stood where he was, quietly looking at the two who were then suddenly joined by a third element.

Jihyuck.

Elio tried his best to keep his emotions away from his face, a neutral, strained expression the most he could achieve, even when the Ravenclaw leaned closer to Céleste to kiss her lips and he felt his blood boil.

“Congratulations once again Cap! I brought you a drink!” Some Slytherin girl’s voice echoed near him, bringin him back to reality, and in a split second his trademark grin returned to his features before he could answer her.

“Thank you so much,” he said in a polite, cheery tone, taking the drink. Was that one of the new prefect girls? He simply hadn’t the mind to pretend to care for these people, not when the image of Jihyuck kissing Céleste seemed to still burn on the back of his eyeball and mind. 

“Sorry dear, you’ll have to excuse me for a second,” he said, downing the drink after and giving the girl the now empty glass before making his way towards the back door. 

He could feel his emotions taking over to some extent. Jealousy and anger mostly, and he could actually feel them morphing the colour of his hair into some shade of red - that was an annoying part of being a metamorphagus, at times he had no control of his power when strong emotions dethroned his rationality. At least it only affected his hair colour.

Elio was only a few steps into the alley when he heard the back door of the pub squeak open, promptly followed by Castor’s voice. The Gryffindor seemed to have been drinking prodigiously, if only he had his twin’s drinking habits.

Elio slowly turned around, his eye almost twitching at both the newfound nickname and the mention of Céleste.

WHAT A GAME! 

This has been the most thrilling game of the month yet! Players were at eachother’s hairs, fights nearly happening, even the bleachers were on hype and aggressively shouting! A certified amazing match if you ask me!

And what an astonishing result too, with Slytherin winning this match by 550, yet having Gryffindor only 100 points behind with 450. One foul to signal however lost both teams 50 points but still, this was one for the books folks.

Well, anyway, hope you had fun, if i were you i’d clear the path of the angry lions and will certainly keep away from the snakes, they bite even when they win.

Pollux frowns, having forgotten for a split second that the Slytherin common rooms were located in the dungeons of Hogwarts and had as a view the bottom of the lake. 

A chill ran down his spine just at the memory of the three seconds he’d spent down there earlier than year, it was dark and eerie, something he wasn’t against, obviously, but it felt cold… Too cold for his liking. No wonder all Slytherins had issues, he’d be a mess too if he was forced to live on what truly felt like a hug from a snake.

Regardless, Pollux fails to hide his shock upon hearing about Elio making deals with merpeople. 

He hadn’t been the absolute best student at COMC, but Elio had fallen substantially behind him in those classes, so, how the Slytherin had managed to get a merperson to do something for him was both a mystery but also a deed worth praising.

“How broken is it?” Pollux cuts in just as Elio was about to say ‘three’. “Christopher found a photo a few days ago… a photo of me, apparently taken after the camera went missing, that’s the secret.”

Elio’s eyebrows arch upwards, “a photo of you?” hopefully Pollux would get the hint and develop the topic. 

Everyone knew the younger Slytherin would often sneak photos of Pollux, be it due to a crush or idolization Elio wasn’t sure but... “how so taken after the camera went missing, does anyone know when this went missing exactly?” 

Evening - Hogsmeade, The Three Broomsticks.

Elio’s message had left him on edge all afternoon.

He hadn’t got the chance to sneak out of Hogwarts as he normally would upon receiving a text that read something in the lines of “need to see you as soon as possible. can’t speak in school. i’ll be at ttb”. 

Professors had spent the day trailing after him after he’d left the hospital wing, only because what put him there wasn’t something they deemed to have been a common accident for someone as experienced and honourable as Pollux, the head of Gryffindor.

It had been a Monday full of questions and fake smiles, hopefully whatever Elio had to speak with him would bring sanity back into his spirit.

Pollux takes close to no time in spotting Elio at the abnormally emptied pub and it’s only when he’s pulling the chair back in order to sit down that he notices the camera placed at the center of the table, eerily surrounded by empty glasses. 

Elio had been there for a while, that’s for sure.

“Hey man,” he greets, sliding onto his seat and making a vague nod towards the camera. “Isn’t that Christopher’s camera?”

The ticking clock on the wall right next to him as driving him mad as the evening progressed. He’d lost count to all the drinks he’d downed in hopes of making the obnoxious tick-tock noise die down, needless would be to add it never worked, and it wasn’t as if all the time spent clockwatching had done much for solving the literal mystery as hands.

Elio began displaying the empty mugs of butterbeer around the camera in a circle, madness surely aiding with the artistic tendencies at that point.

Just what was taking Pollux so long? Had he decided to walk the tracks? Elio was growing impatient, and that was never good.

However Pollux was saved by the bell, literally, Elio had been about to fish his phone out of his pocked when the Gryffindor walked in the pub, making the bell above the door chime.

“Brilliant deduction,” he retorts at Pollux’ question. “I managed to find it, not that it did much for me since it’s broken from having been tossed into the bottom of the lake.” He scoffs and crosses his arms over the table, then resting his chin on them as he stares at the camera through an empty glass mug.

“Was a fucking hassle... I spotted it through one of the windows in the common room and then I had to go to hell and back in order to get one of those pesky little merpeople to help me out,” Elio frowns as he can still feel his arm sting from when the kelpie had decided to try and yank him into the water. Greedy little bastards.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15TH

     Elio was sitting on the Hogwarts Train on his way to Hogsmeade, far too done with any remaining classes for the rest of the day - it’s not like was gonna be missed in them either ways.

     The train was going at its ever agonisingly slow pace as always, it was fitting really, as it was forcing Elio to spend time alone with his thoughts. He had witnessed a lot during the past two weeks, and even if at first he didn’t want to piece things together, having badgered after the others for the sake of getting on their nerves, now he was starting to see things in a new light.

     From Christopher debating a photo with Pollux (who really had no artistic vision, Christopher had really done a terrible job in lying convincingly), to Vincent meeting up with a strange guy in Hogsmeade to debate artefacts, not to forget Junjie’s sneaking out of the dorm to do things into the wee hours of the night - Elio mentally noted to see that later. 

     His friends were behaving weird and all he could do was sit in the sidelines and watch, all the while knowing it was all related to the murder, the one topic he avoided more than having to talk with annoying younger girls who’d fawn over him.

     It couldn’t be helped, he needed to intervene in this situation as soon as possible. With a shrug and a sigh he looked down at his own hands resting on his lap, in them Christopher’s broken camera, emptied of any film.