there were sleepless dreamers

some part of maddison believed him when he said that it wasn’t a front, but it wasn’t safe to say it. she was better off making excuses—leander has always been good-hearted, never once slipping up ( something that she couldn’t say herself, and she gritted her teeth painfully at the thought ) but he could simply just be an EXCELLENT ACTOR. she held back a laugh—pitiful, of course. “rose cakes and strawberry coffee,” maddison mused. “that seems like a better option than doing something that could you in trouble.” no, it didn’t—but this sounded like a brewing idea and maddison, although she favoured trouble, she also favoured leander. she gave him a look: don’t do something stupid. “alright, suppose that’s true… what kind of secret kick-ass nice thing would you do? or have you already planned this?” at least maddison could prepare herself to what kind of trouble he might get into. not that she cared that much, she swore to herself.

he held his hands out in front of him, the half shrug a play at looking defensive. a don’t shoot the messenger look, even if it was a joking facsimile of one. he wondered if there was some kind of moral failing in enacting a mocking gesture  ( never mind how well meaning the mocking was )  right after insisting to a friend you weren’t putting on a front.  “ look, “  he began, moving on from any philosophizing before he could get too stuck in his own head.  “ I’m not endorsing the rose cakes and strawberry coffee. I kind of hate the flavor of flowers in dessert anyway. so is it really the better option? “  he let his hands drop, shrugging with the motion. his tone turned from light to musing, and he cocked his head to look at maddison more head on. he was an expert at ignoring looks like the one she tossed his way  ---  warning looks, like everyone knew the next step he planned on taking. he grinned at her instead. “ I don’t mind the idea of getting in trouble if it’s, you know, for something good. and kick-ass nice things are for sure good. “  his grin turned teasing, by a certain measure of teasing.  “ if I already have something secret planned, why would I tell you and ruin the surprise? “  it wasn’t much of a surprise anyway, to anyone that knew him.

“People can do a lot of weird things. Especially on the internet,” said Fenna, chuckling softly. “I know a few ways to open them without bottle openers — like with a lighter or a spoon or, sometimes, with just the edge of a table, but that’s nothing compared to what some people have in their party-trick repertoire. Just look it up on YouTube.” She didn’t add that Leander should do so once summer holidays rolled around, not wanting to even think about the new rules at Hogwarts ( and how they just seemed the beginning ). This was a party, after all. “I don’t have a preference — just whatever you find first, really,” she said, smile on her nodding face. “Congratulations, by the way. You guys were really good out there.”

“ I know about the thing with the edges of tables, “  leander offered with an easy shrug.  “ I can see how that makes for a far less interesting YouTube video than, y’know, anything with bellybuttons. but overall, it’s less terrifying to think about. “  he found the little bottle opener deep in the recesses of his jean pockets, and he held out to fenna with a quick smile. it was little: meant as a key-chain accessory, he thought, but he had no keys attached. his keys for home rarely left the bottom of his trunk while at hogwarts. “ I’d try it  ---  the table thing, I mean. but also, in case it goes horribly south I feel like it’s something to try out in an open space, the first time. “  leander was sure, in an absent way, that he looked a little ridiculous with this smile just taking new forms on his face.  “ thanks, fenna. it was insane  ---  the beaters were right on top of it all today. “

where:  hogwarts corridor when:  29 february, 2024 who:  open to anyone @ hogwarts

     this was the most strung-out louis had been in his entire life, he was sure of it.  and given his general state of high-strung, that was definitely saying something.  things had been going okay-ish, as smoothly as they could have been this year.  and then …  boom.  everything came crumbling the fuck down the way it always seemed to, anymore.  lily was gone — vanished — kidnapped.  and this registry business.  truth be told, louis was more concerned about his sisters, his mother especially, than he was himself.  maybe with everything else going on, nothing would happen.  besides, who really cared about a kid who was only one-eighth veela anyway?  

     it was that thought that sent him spiraling, and before he knew it he was excusing himself from class and stumbling out into the hall.  once out of sight and out of earshot of the classroom, he pressed his back to the wall and closed his eyes.  he hadn’t been sleeping very much since shit hit the fan.  how could he?  he had to keep watch to make sure one of his housemates wasn’t about to smother him with a pillow.  louis’s eyes shot open at the thought.  “fuck,”  he whispered.  he tried to steady his breathing, finally glancing around at his surroundings.  “oh shit,”  he muttered, clearing his throat.  “i didn’t see you there.”

leander was supposed to use this hour as a study period; he usually took the time to sit in peaceful solitude in the greenhouses or an empty potions’ classroom, to try and retrace any lessons that ended in unforeseen fire that week. but there was a lot going on this week that didn’t include fire or botched lessens  ---  even for someone who hated reading the newspaper first thing in the morning, the news was hard to escape. and it hit too close to home, closer than leander felt he could let on. it was hard to focus even on the classes he looked forward to the most. and it was just a study period. who would get on his case for taking one day off? 

but, because leander was used to spending this time alone and away from the busy parts of the castle  ---  he hadn’t quite prepared for seeing anyone else. his mind was elsewhere, as it too often was; he really needed that preparation to have any hope of not making a fool of himself in conversation. he slid to a belated stop when he turned a sharp corner and saw louis. leander took a second to try and read the room  ---  the room was, of course, a hallway, and also just him and louis, which should’ve made it easier to read and yet.  “ fuck, “  he agreed, and then paused and looked away from him.  “ sorry, I don’t know why I repeated that. if it helps, “  he broke off and took a half step closer to the gryffindor. then he broke off from that movement, too.  “ if it helps, I just got here. so it’d have, you know, been a little hard to see me. “

LEANDER FINNIGAN-THOMAS:   a moodboard

maddison gave him a wry smile, before it widened into a heartfelt one at his reaction to her accusations. she wanted to laugh—and for a split second, she felt the cold grip of fear on the back of her neck at the thought that she might’ve just done so. damn him. “ah, keeping up the benevolent front, are we? i see.” she teased, nudging him with her elbow. “don’t feel too bad about it. in fact, this might be the one other time that i find myself to be very happy with you and proud of you.” a half-truth. in the past week alone, she could pinpoint which days were less awful because leander had been in them. even for as short as catching a glimpse of him between classes. maddison raised a brow, “alright. enlighten me, then. what’s the spirit of valentine’s day supposed to be like?” 

he liked talking to maddison, but sometimes it felt like his already poor grasp of conversational cues slipped even more when the cues came from her. a smile was a safe choice. leander could think of very few situations where if someone smiled at him, it’d be a misstep to smile back.   “ it’s not a front, “  he protested, sure the protest read half-hearted at best. less sure that the protest was even necessary  ---   leander felt his mind get tripped up in the teasing, assurances of happiness that he thought, maybe, tied back to taking advantage. he hadn’t been trying to take advantage. but was it worse to let someone think that than it was to keep interrupting a conversation with apologies for something long moved on from? “ but  ---  yeah. not feeling bad about it, “  he said. maybe still feeling bad about it.  ( was it weird to feel bad about something someone was proud of him for? )  “ and I think, I don’t know. madame puddifoot’s would tell you the spirit of valentine’s day is taking someone out for rose cakes and strawberry coffee. but wasn’t the actual st. valentine a rebel who married people in secret? so the spirit of valentine’s day should be doing kick-ass nice things but, you know, secretly? “

where: greenhouse three when: newt level herbology class, tuesday 20 feb 2024 who: @leandxrs

For the record, Lucy loved Neville. Really, she did. He was an excellent family friend (both friend to her family and family to her friend), and as a professor, he’d always struck a respectable balance between approachable and firm, compassionate and resolute. Also, he taught Herbology, which was one of basically three subjects she actually tried to pay attention in. It was simply misfortune, then, and not intentional trouble-making, that had led her and Leander to teaming up that day —- when they were, it was announced, set to handle Bouncing Bulbs. Not just any, of course, but mature ones. “Well,” Lucy said breezily, determined to be optimistic about their chances to minimise the disaster that was sure to follow, “I have complete faith in us! Way I figure it, you’re excellent at handling things—-Mister Chaser Extraordinaire—-and I’m excellent at having energy, so like, we’re totally experienced experts for this, yeah? Piece of cake!”

leander honestly, genuinely enjoyed herbology. as a kid he’d always felt like he had an understanding with plants and professor longbottom was great  ---  part of the reason leander was seriously considering herbology as a career, if he was being honest. and if he were to rate all of his classes on a scale from low danger of melting your foot again to high danger of melting your foot again, herbology was always low. but of course, and leander might need to check his math on this at some point, he thought any time he worked with lucy in a class his scale got a little skewed.  leander stared at a bouncing bulb another team had just been handed, and wondered if they were all bound to be so rambunctious. he shrugged the internal question off; turned to look at lucy with a smile. it was hard to match her breeziness but he could feign some confidence in the experience about to unfold.  “ piece of cake, “  he agreed.  “ our skill-sets just might combine to put us over the rest of the class at handling them, if we’re really, really lucky. “  he paused again and glanced sideways as another group’s bulb started in on an attack.  “ at the very least we probably have better experience for ducking these things. “

“i—” whatever quip maddison had in mind had died before she could even feel them in her mouth. leander made as much sense as she willed herself to listen beyond the first sentence but even then, she couldn’t help but turn his words over in her mind for a second time. out of sheer frustration? perhaps, but even the roll of her eyes had a twinge of amusement to them. she pressed two fingers on her temple and said in a sigh, “i can’t believe i understood even half of what you just said… and that i can even say that you do bring up a good point.” if it had been anyone else, she wouldn’t have given them the time, but she felt that she owed it to him—then she wanted to punch herself for the thought. why? “alright, fine, you’ve been honoured and you’ve managed to outsmart me—all the while getting chocolate for it too!” maddison narrowed her eyes at him, pouting exaggeratedly. “i feel like i’ve just been taken advantage of, leander.” 

“ thank you. “  leander thought he saw some humor in maddison’s expression. he just thought he saw it, but it was enough for his smile to take on a pleased quality  ...  especially when she admitted to understanding what he’d been trying to say, even just a little. he was never sure if the things he said would make sense to anyone  ( he tended to assume they didn’t, or wouldn’t, which was fine, really, it was fine  --- )  so anytime he made a ‘good point’ it felt like a victory. he couldn’t quite say why this cemented the fact that he’d have to make her some cookies for the holiday, as thanks for the chocolate, but it did.  “ I really wasn’t trying to outsmart you, though, “  he added in a rush, the pleased quality of his smile fading some.  “ or take advantage! “  he drummed his fingers on the top of the chocolate box in a haphazard pattern. and mulled over the rest of his response.  “ that’d be mean, for one, and definitely not in line with the spirit of valentine’s day. “

Fenna already felt the buzz of alcohol in her body — she felt like she was slightly humming, and she embraced it fully. It was better than the tension she seemed to feel at all times those days, and with a hangover potion already waiting on her bedside table, she had no plans of holding back tonight. That was as long as her hands would cooperate. Fenna stood with a beer bottle in her hand, trying to get rid off the cap by pushing it against the edge of a table. She seemed to lack the strength, though, or the technique, and frustration washed over her face. The bottle ended up on the table, still closed, and she looked around for a moment before — “Hey, you! Do you have a beer opener? Or a  lighter? Or, like, the strange skill to open beer bottles with your teeth or bellybutton, like those freaks on the internet?”

“ people can do that? “  leander had had every intention of answering fenna’s questions before posing one of his own. but then she decided to tack strange information onto her question and he really couldn’t help his curiosity from running rampant.  “ open bottles with their bellybutton, I mean. that sounds like it’d be painful, “  he paused and considered the logistics of such a feat.  “ but overall kind of a fun party trick, I guess. “  he raised his own bottle to his mouth and that jogged his memory; he turned a mega-watt smile on fenna and began patting at his pockets with one hand.  “ oh! but I do, actually, have an actual bottle opener. since we’re in our common room I figured it’d be nice to be a good host and have, you know, materials. I have a lighter too, so you can use whichever I find first. do you have a preference? “

“yes, well.” suppressing a smile is a lot more difficult than she thought — than she’s normally used to. “i’m not exactly in the mood to set my mind on anything aside from getting these things –” she pushes the sweets further to him, certain. “– away from me. and is it really?” ah, well, that assures maddison’s opinion of valentine’s day ; it’s stupid. she narrows her eyes at leander, “i don’t want to share with you, i want to get rid of them. those are two different things.” she pauses only to nod, “be honoured, then. i’ll take that if it means i’m excused from having to express my gratitude to you — i’ve done plenty here already.”

“ well, if I take them, doesn’t that mean that setting your mind on getting rid of them worked? “  leander cocked his head, eyes flitting briefly to rest on the chocolate before he looked back at maddison. the twist to his smile was almost teasing, subtle enough  ( he hoped )  that she could ignore it and take him at face value, if she wanted. he was at a crossroads in accepting the box; this all began with maddison not wanting them, but it felt rude to accept an edible gift without offering one to the person gifting it.  “ I’ll concede that it’s not sharing if it means that you’ll accept you setting your mind to it worked. “  maybe he’d just bake some cookies for her as thank you and give them to her later.    “ but  ---  of course, I’ll still be honored either way. and, obviously, no need to express your gratitude, accept-the-power-of-setting-your-mind or not. “

🦉 ✉ ⇉  (ROSE) friday, feb 13th

rose, 9:06 pm:  i know exactly how this is going to come off, but i honestly don’t know how you’ve managed to survive in this world. don’t ever change, leander. i don’t know what i’d do without you. 

mum says blame can be given, but not taken; thus, etc. etc. your dibs is INVALID– don’t fight it! i couldn’t bear to watch you be my patsy. 

and re: the garlands, i was actually thinking of doing all edible flowers or berries to give that splash of color for the students, but also make it a treat for the owls. they deserve it, especially with all the flying they’re doing to get these letters to you!

🦉 ✉ ⇉  (ROSE) friday, feb 13th

leander, 9:14 pm:  i’ve just survived thanks to the power of positive thinking i guess! can’t change now! guess you’re stuck with me!

i’d never call your mum wrong but in my family dibs have power so i feel like the power of dibs and the power of  ...  blame cancel each other out and NEITHER of us has to take the blame  

when: february 14, 2024. where: hogwarts. who: open. 

“hello—will you help me?” she whispers, leaning over the other with a box of more valentine’s treats. it wouldn’t have been such a problem, if maddison didn’t hate the taste of chocolate. she slides into an empty seat with a feigned grimace, “mistake or not, i can’t eat this much sweets and i think it’d be such a waste just to toss them.” she waves a hand, coolly and uncaring. “happy valentine’s.” 

“ happy valentine’s, maddison! “  leander’s voice dropped down to a whisper, his cheerful tone doing its best to match maddison’s volume. he leaned back in his seat a little and used the motion to look over at her and the sweets in question with a grin.  “ I'm always happy to help you, “  he said, that grin settling into a smaller smile.  “ ---  though I do think if you set your mind to it you could eat them. it’s kind of the point of valentine’s day anyway, right? heart decorations and eating too much candy? but. if you just want to share with me, I’d be honored. “  

There was something undeniably precious about Leander Finnigan-Thomas. In fact, if Genie was someone else, she might even have found him endearing. She supposed she did, in a way—-she was more entertained by it than anything, but she appreciated it for her purposes—-her only real interested in endearment, after all, was in other people’s feeling it towards her, or in using the endearment of others against themselves and those around them. But Leander was sweet, and reliable, and there was always something enjoyable in seeing how far that went. She put on an unhappy expression for a moment longer, before breaking into a brilliant smile. “Oh, it’s all right —- I suppose I can forgive you,” she said, a touch of teasing to her tone, before softening her smile slightly and widening her eyes just a smidge. She wondered absently where Gemma and Odilia were—-if they couldn’t see her have her fun, she hoped they were winding up Gryffindors or something that would mean as good of a time as she was having. “You know,” she said, with an almost shaky laugh, looking up at him through her lashes, “knowing that you’d help me with a favour if I needed… it kind of makes up for thinking that’s all I would want in the first place.” Deep breath, G, this is the soft spot. Taking in a breath, she bit her lip, striving for an expression that looked touched —- verging on demure —- and then broke into another smile, giddier this time. “Yay, I’m so glad, LeLe,” she said, brightening, effortlessly weaving her arm through his. “Have you been having a good night?”

a problem leander had with himself was that on occasion  ( those occasions being, of course, a frequent thing )  he sent words out into the world, received a moment too long of silence in return, and panicked. he stared at genie’s expression with a smile stuck onto his face and wondered of he needed to vault more sentences out at her  ---  but then it cleared and he swallowed whatever nonsense had been on the verge of coming out.  “ thank you very much for your forgiveness, “  he said with a smile sliding its way to something more natural. maybe a bit more alarmed, but such was the way one had to navigate conversations with genie, leander thought. he let out a small, confused laugh of his own, when the echo of hers was already gone a beat too long.  “ well, see! no need for either of us to, uh, linger on any opening misunderstandings. since your forgiveness means a lot to me and that knowledge made up for stuff to you. “  leander’s wondered if any of that made sense. it sure had been a lot of words, but he figured it was in her hands to decide if they were coherent ones. he beamed anyway  ---  tried his very best to match her smile in wattage. tried, too, to move the conversation away from what he thought might’ve been some sentimentality. sentimentality in conversation felt even more like tripwire than pockets of silence. as it was, leander barely knew what he was talking about when he talked to genie; best to just move past things as easy as she’d let him. 

it was easy to allow to link her arm to his, when the contact came with a subject change. he wasn’t quite certain what she wanted him to do, now that their arms were twined, but he wasn’t bothered by that. he’d wing it.  “ I can’t say that much has happened tonight. it hasn’t been bad! but  ---  what about you, genie? have you seen an nice evening? “