-

Even if Louis sensed anything odd at all in Santi’s tone, his tendency to assume others always meant well and give them the benefit of the doubt overpowered it easily. “Well, I didn’t really lose him, but, – well, if you need help looking, I don’t mind helping,” he offered. 

“Thanks,” he said, only partially genuine as he began to stroll along the crowded ‘streets’. “Although, if I’ve heard the right things, I believe you might end up losing him. He can get preoccupied quite easily, from my sources at least.” Everything he said had a double meaning, under-handed yet not openly so, because unfortunately he’d rather be caught dead than shit talk Jamie as bravely as he would anyone else.

Leonard’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “I don’t think that word works there,” he said, a hint of accusation in his tone. “How do you crucify a secret? You criticize it? Put the thesaurus down, Santi.” Then, thinking a bit more, he got even more confused. “Wait, how does knowing people’s secrets make you not chicken shit? Dude, your logic makes no sense.”

“You know, using words outside of their intended meaning is how literature when from cavemen in the jungle to Percy Shelley and Ernest Hemmingway, even Rita Skeeter,” he said, matter-of-fact. “Crucify means to criticize. Pick up the thesaurus, Leo.” Santi rolled his eyes at the other, “Anyone else would be easily blackmailed if they did what I do. It takes someone entirely un-chickenshit to hide their entire lives from people they spend their lives with.”

Louis shook his head, more than eager to jump to Jamie’s defense. “Oh, no he didn’t do that!! We’re gonna meet up again later,” he explained, unable to stop a smile from sneaking onto his face. It was the first time he had a chance to bring a date to one of these events, so he couldn’t help but be excited for the time he was going to spend with him. “Besides, I’m not alone, really. I mean, there are so many people here I just gotta say hi to! So I get a chance to see ‘em.” Louis’ natural tendency was to be friendly to people, which meant saying hi when he saw people he knew. It was instinctual.

Against his will, he was imaging a scenario in which he managed to accompany Louis while he met with Jamie. Maybe he would have if he was capable of a more potent bitterness toward the Gryffindor. “Well, I’m certainly glad to hear he hasn’t abandoned you,” His words left with a slight, nearly unrecognizable venom. “But hey, I’ve lost my mate too. Maybe we could look around together? I mean, it works, we do sorta match after all.”

Leonard chuckled and shrugged before handing the Slytherin what was left of the funnel cake. “Guess we could find out next.” Leonard had never been one to scare easily; given his previous parental situation, Leonard had developed a strong stomach. Still, he usually never sought out scary things for entertainment. He supposed tonight was a special occasion. “If you’re not chicken shit, that is.”

Santiago eagerly began devouring the funnel cake, even if it was an ill-advised decision, considering he was close to getting his insides pureed on a giant steel contraption. He cackled and shook his head at Leonard, “Yeah, me, the bloke that gets every secret in this place crucified on the regular, is chicken shit.” He clapped a hand onto the other’s back. “Projecting won’t work on me.”

Louis nodded in understanding – the ‘babysitter’ comment hadn’t offended him, really, he just needed more specifics. Although, he realized, ‘babysitter’ didn’t really work or apply with Jamie, especially not anymore. “He was gonna spend some time with some other friends for a bit – um, Felix, I think?” he offered. “So he’d be with them. Not sure where they are right now, though. Sorry! Wish I could help more.”

Well, he was as sweet and accommodating as Jamie, even (or especially) when it came to strangers. But that had to be dull, right? Opposites did attract after all. But maybe times had changed, much to Santi’s dismay. “Felix?” he said at first, but shook his head shortly after, deciding that wasn’t the sort of path he wanted to follow. “No worries. It’s not an emergency or anything. Surprised he would leave you hanging though, you look all alone out here.”

Louis had found that complimenting other people costumes was a great way to connect with people at this Halloween festival. But before he had a chance to say, ‘Hey, we’re both famous wizards!’ and say how proud he was to be related to Harry, Santi spoke up.

In response, Louis just shrugged and smiled. “Thank you!” he said. As far as he was concerned, ‘enthusiastic’ was a compliment. He continued by saying “Oh, uh, are you looking for Vic?” only to realize that his baby sitter could also be other people. “Or I guess it could be Dom? Jamie? Or Lily?”

It took a few moments of processing for Santi to connect the dots. From the mention of his sister, to noticing their similarities, to Jamie, which especially stuck out, to- oh, that’s it. Not only was he shrieking internally but he was also entertaining the idea of not going complete bitch at first glance. Though, that might have been the Dom in the back of his head warding him off.

“Hmm, Jamie, I think that’s the one. Where’d he wander off to?” he inquired, subtly looking over Louis and sizing him up. Sure, he was cute, he and the Gryffindor made an excellent gay blonde duo, but was he worth Jamie leaving knock-off Harry Potter for?

“You may have a point, but let’s give this line the benefit of the doubt, huh?” Leonard said before taking another bite of his funnel cake. He then gestured towards the haunted house with his fork before asking “You think that’s gonna be any good?”

Dominique listened, noting the rare sincerity in Santi’s tone. She had to repeat his words in her head before they sunk in, even a little. Jamie’s harmless, Jamie’s harmless, Jamie’s harmless. “Fine,” she huffed. “So I guess I’ll just have to do the best damn acting in my life and pretend to be happy for my brother. If the date goes well, Merlin knows he’s gonna come to me to be all happy and shit.” She scoffed at the annoyance she was expecting to have to endure in the future.

Santiago didn’t think feeling that much relief in his life was possible, but alas he was proven wrong for the thousandth time that week. He attempted to lighten up the mood by offering, “Well, that’s just more practice towards Broadway, innit? It’s not 100% singing after all. Think of all the praise you’ll get one day just from listening to my honeyed words.”

“I know, that’s why we get along so well,” Leonard agreed before actually laughing. Very few people could get more than a chuckle out of Leonard, but Santi got laughs fairly consistently. The Hufflepuff just really enjoyed the guy’s sense of humor. “We can talk about your fucked up priorities later, but let’s get in line for the zipper.” He nodded his head in the direction of the line, noticing the potential of how long it could get. Once they were there, he mused aloud “Hopefully the coaster-brain came up with some system to make the lines go fast.

“I can give you some recommendations if you ever change your mind,” Dominique offered. She had a lot of old fuck buddies, a lot of them being guys who were also into guys. All of them more attractive in Dominique’s eyes than Jamie was.”You can always complain to me, but now I’m stuck. I can’t tell Louis what sweater kid did without outing you, and I can’t not tell him because he’s my brother, and I can’t punch this kid because it’ll hurt both you and Louis.” She groaned, throwing her head back dramatically before saying “Tell me what to do. Whatever you say, I’ll do it. This is a fucking shooting star opportunity, rare as fuck, so think carefully.”

“I’ll keep you posted on that one,” he gave a light chuckle in response to her offer. He did appreciate it, though he doubted he would ever have the guts to take her up on it. But more importantly, Santiago did not want her to confront the two. It was a messy situation with no direct solution, and it was even more difficult to try and persuade Dom to do nothing. “I want you to trust me, which is rarer because I actually mean it. You can stalk your brother all you like, but please believe me when I say that Jamie’s harmless, the only reason I’m being a sad bitch is because he didn’t want to be a secret anymore. Clearly he doesn’t have to be with Louis.”

Leonard looked at Santi with a smirk. “Never took you for the ‘glass half full’ type,” he teased before mirroring the Slytherin’s shrug. “I liked them a lot as a kid, but I haven’t been on any rides since I came to Hogwarts.” He took another bite before asking “You feel like trying something new?”

“Really? You’re not even trying?” she asked, trying not to judge him. ‘Love is blind’ and all that shit, but she could not see the appeal of sweater kid. But, if both Santi and Louis saw something in him, then there had to be something, right? Still, she was really frustrated. “Well what the fuck am I supposed to do? You have heart nodes, my brother is involved, and I’m not supposed to punch this kid in the face? How the fuck is that fair?”

“Deep down I’d love to snog some random and cry into my pillow regretfully after, but the emotion of betrayal has been unfortunately instilled inside me.” he sighed, averting his gaze to think all of this over. She did have valid concerns. Although Santiago questioned whether or not he’d do the same for his sister, of who he was extremely detached, he could sympathize with the concept. “It really has nothing to do with your brother. I just. . . I just wanted to complain to someone instead of snitch.”

Leonard chuckled, nodding in agreement. “No wonder he’s such an idiot, he’s busy riding roller coasters in his head, there’s no room for anything else.” Leonard chuckled before he twitched an eyebrow at an idea. “Speaking of flashy park rides, you like them? Or are you a ‘feet firmly on the ground at all times’ kind of guy?”

“I’m not surprised. Maybe since he’s let all his passion for them out tonight, he could grow as a person and become a tolerable member of society?” Santi entertained, though he strongly doubted the concept. He glanced over at the Hufflepuff and shrugged. “I’ve never been on them before, so I can’t say.”

Shit. He was making good points. Still, she was shocked he was trying to make points at all. “Why are you even trying to defend him in the first place?” she asked, shaking her head. She was still scowling, but her expression did soften when she asked “You… wow, you really like him, huh?”

Like was an understatement, but he would rather die than admit that aloud at the moment. Instead, he simply nodded. “Yeah, quite a bit.” said Santi, “And I’m just as confused as you are about it. I mean, I haven’t even made any attempts at moving on. Which is driving me equally as insane.”

“Will do,” she smirked cockily at the promise of getting to punch him; maybe it would knock some sense into him. At the mention of Jack, Dominique connected more dots, but she was still going to fight against this. “That was… no, don’t compare this, this is completely different,” she insisted, though she could feel herself on the end of an uphill battle. “Lily and Jack went on one date, and he did it out of pity… I think, I don’t know why he dated her in the first place, but that’s not the point. The point is that it was never serious between them.”

He could tell that she was beginning to process the similarities between the two scenarios. True, they weren’t identical, and Santiago was not expecting to draw out any spare remorse that she might have had saved somewhere. “Well, Lily didn’t know that at first, did she? And before he had a chance to properly end things you two were going at it,” he cleared his throat. “Not trying to pass any judgement but. . . I know Jamie didn’t do any of this to hurt me. Just like that Finnigan boy didn’t snog you to hurt Lily.”

“No, but it means the guy has some redeeming qualities,” Leonard countered before looking down at his now smaller funnel cake. He looked back up to simply say “Rude,” then took another bite.