#benxharry

Ben's heart is hammering against his ability to think rationally and he can't breathe.

"'M 'onna be s'ck..." He moans as he looks down through the little trapdoor, at the deck of the ship that seems far too far away. They'd come up before breakfast and now Harry has told him the only way to get lunch - or anything, really - is to climb back down.

Harry gives him an unimpressed look. "Really, princess? You can't stand up but you can find the energy to be sick?"

There's something about the scorn in Harry's voice that makes Ben want to curl up and cry. Since he's currently already curled up and he'd already cried in front of Harry only hours before, he chooses to simply close his eyes and pretend the sound of the ocean is just the water feature his mother had insisted on keeping in his room.

"Mhm... y'r 'ight," Ben mumbles, his voice slightly muffled by the fact that his head is pressing into his knees, "'m 'onna jus' feel s'ck..."

There's a scoff and then the trapdoor closes again, suggesting that either Harry had jumped out or has decided against getting food. Neither of those makes sense to Ben but he doesn't want to move in case the mast topples and they both fall so he stays silent, hoping the situation will somehow fix itself before it can get worse and he officially becomes the worst kind of king to ever exist.

Silence reigns in the crow's nest until Harry sits down opposite Ben and sighs. "You have to go down at some point."

"I have a week, right?" Ben looks up just to see Harry's reaction in case he misses anything but finds himself squinting at the bright sun, his eyes rapidly blinking to try and adjust.

"You can't stay up here for a week," Harry argues, folding his arms and frowning.

"Why not?" Ben asks, pulling his legs closer and hugging his knees harder, "In fact, it'd be good for you as well, right? You won't have to worry about me..."

Harry rolls his eyes. "I don't worry about you anyway."

That stings. It wouldn't usually have bothered Ben at all but, right now, there's nobody else who seems to worry about him - he figures that if anyone from Auradon was going to come and find him, they would have done something by now - so knowing that even Harry has given up on him stings. The whole of Auradon, or rather, anyone who was aware of the royal decisions, had started to look for Mal the second she'd left but Ben's been here for several days - he thinks - and there's no sign of anything so he can't help being disheartened.

"Harry?" he asks quietly as he shuts his eyes again, letting his head fall back onto his knees.

"What is it, princess?"

Ben bites his lip for an entire minute of silence before asking: "How long have I been here?"

A small, thoughtful frown flickers over Harry's face before he settles with saying: "About a week, I reckon. Not that I'm any good at telling time, I'm pretty useless when it comes to stuff like that."

"What?" Ben can't manage a more intelligent response; that's the last thing he'd expected Harry to say.

When Harry doesn't reply but there's a shuffling that suggests he's stood up again and has probably turned around to look out to the sea, Ben clears his throat and pushes his panic down. He pulls his head up and, thankfully, it doesn't take as long to adjust to the light this time before he can say: "You're not useless."

Harry's laugh is more like a bitter bark. "I can't even count."

"Good thing you're not a mathematics teacher, right?" Ben laughs, but his voice betrays his uncertainty and he barely has time to blink before Harry is knelt down in front of him with venom in his glare.

"Are you mocking me?"

"I didn't mean to!" Ben practically squeaks, his face reddening.

Harry's eyes narrow but his gaze flickers between Ben's eyes and he seems to find what he'd been looking for. His voice is far softer than the suspicion in his beautifully endless blue eyes - not that Ben had been staring at them because, in his opinion, they're more celestial than the sky, no, of course not - when he says: "I know, princess, I know."

"I'm sorry," Ben offers, calming down enough to notice how Harry's eyes are almost the same colour as the sky above them right now. He then adds, "And, anyway, you don't need numbers to know when the sun goes down, do you?"

"No, but you need numbers to know how many times the sun has gone down since your arrival, princess." Harry raises an eyebrow, leaning back, apparently deciding he'd rather continue their conversation whilst sat down.

Ben blushes. "Right, of course. Sorry."

He slowly stretches out his legs a little, wincing when his muscles complain, and lets his head lean back on the edge of the crow's nest. Which is exactly when the world shakes. Hit with a spike of fear once again, Ben shrieks and blindly throws his arms out, more than surprised when he actually hits something, someone.

"Woah, steady on." Harry had apparently moved forward just in time to steady Ben, who's just about ready to cry again.

"I don't think I like heights," Ben mumbles, not even sure if he's actually saying anything because all he can hear is his quickened heartbeat.

The smile on Harry's face is both amused and bashful before he replies: "It's not exactly a brilliant first experience to make your judgement upon though."

Ben nods, then frowns. "You might not be a great mathematics teacher but I bet you'd fit right into the role of an English teacher..."

"Thanks, princess," Harry chuckles, letting go of Harry only when the world stabilises once again. There's a genuine beam on his face and Ben can't help wishing he'd learned how to develop a photographic memory so he could keep that image in his mind forever and- woah, what?

"Do you like pancakes?" Ben asks, the question jumping from his mouth in a desperate attempt to shift his focus from the way he can't stop thinking about Harry to something, anything else.

"No."

"No?" Ben echoes, now completely confused.

Harry laughs. "No, because we don't have them here and, as a pirate, you have to dislike everything you don't know about if you want to stay alive long enough to find out more."

That can't be a happy way of living, Ben thinks as he bites his lip, then stops himself from doing so because he remembers his parents telling him not to ruin his facial features, and then bites it again because they're not here and nobody needs to take a photo of him right now anyway.

"Are you hungry?" Harry asks after a moment.

Ben blinks. "What?"

He's met with a yet another perfectly arched eyebrow. "You asked about pancakes before attempting to eat your lips. Classic signs of hunger."

"Remind me never to learn psychology from you either," Ben laughs, happy to then see a smile on Harry's face too.

"I'd like to see you try and beat me in psychology, princess." Harry's voice is almost a challenge and Ben would be scared had he not been a part of the conversation beforehand.

"Oh, it's a challenge, captain."

Harry's eyebrows furrow in pleasant confusion. "Captain?"

Once again, Ben blushes. He opens his mouth to say something that might make him sound intelligent but then Harry shifts and suddenly his head is perfectly aligned with the sun, its rays creating a golden halo around him, and Ben is so mesmerised that he almost forgets to breathe altogether.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you're looking pretty lovestruck, princess."

The colour on his face now darker than a sinking sunset, Ben shrugs, then, against his better judgement, salutes and gives Harry a small smile. "Aye aye, captain."

In a crazy turn of events, Harry goes pink. Ben just admires the way the flush on his cheeks contrasts with the dark grey around his eyes. At least, he admires it until Harry coughs pointedly, at which point Ben wants a nearby cloud to fall, engulf him and save him of the embarrassment that comes from being caught staring, especially when you're caught by the person you were staring at.

"Uh... You have something on your face..." Ben mutters uselessly.

"It's called make-up, princess, get over it." If Ben was standing up, he'd probably be pushed over by the sheer force of defensive attitude in that sentence.

"I can't, Captain, you're too tall for me to do that," he says instead of trying to redeem himself. Luckily, it works and Harry chuckles lightly, the tension in his expression morphing into amusement and what might just be admiration.

After a while, Harry stands up again and looks out to the sea, dutifully doing his job. This gives Ben the opportunity to watch the pirate, to watch the way he taps rhythms with his feet and fingers, to watch the way his hair gently ripples with the breeze, and to watch the way he manages to effortlessly be the single most enchanting person to ever exist. Ben gets lost in the sight of Harry and he's sure that, if things had been different and he wasn't alternating between being intimidated and being in awe, he would have let Harry be his captain without a second thought.

Ben coughs as his eyes fly open, his chest screaming at him and his throat telling his chest to shut up so it can complain about its own pain.

"Rise and shine, princess," Harry says immediately, almost as if he'd been waiting for Ben to wake up.

"What happened?"

"I'm not a doctor, I don't know," Harry answers. If Ben didn't know better, he might think that was a dismissive comment instead of a secretly concerned one.

"Uma said something about answers..." he stars nervously.

Harry sighs. "Breakfast always comes before questions. I hope you still like bread."

He does. He really does. He likes the person serving the bread even more but he doesn't know why so he says nothing, telling his stomach to accept the bread despite his usual, stricter diet.

Harry eats nothing, he notices, but drinks what smells like candy and looks like seawater.

"Is your Highness done?"

"It's your Majesty actually," Ben corrects before he can stop himself. He doesn't know why he feels brave enough to do something like that but he swallows the fear in his throat.

"You what?"

"Uh, the king is usually referred to as 'His Majesty' and the, um, the title of 'Your Highness' is for princes and-"

"Alright, I've heard enough, you donkey," Harry mutters darkly, but not unkindly.

Ben frowns but lets it go since Harry has a look on his face, one that he associates with students in a classroom, and he doesn't want to see that genuine expression fade, especially not because of him.

"Harry!" Uma yells, which is all the warning they get before she's bursting into the room with a glare on her face.

"Yes, Captain?" Harry asks with his posture instantly more alert, his soft expression replaced by stiff respect.

"Have you learned anything yet?" She demands, pulling him outside even as she does.

Ben doesn't know what happens next but when Harry comes back in, there's a growing bruise on his arm and a dark grimace on his face.

"I'm sorry," Ben says.

Harry glowers at him, his gaze so much more intimidating than anything he's seen more, even deadlier than Uma's crazed grin.

"Don't stick your nose where your brain can't follow, princess."

Ben's mouth stops open in shock. He feels lost, like he's only just realised he's not at home, he's in a different land where there are different norms and different rules and different people.

Deciding not to apologise in fear of angering Harry, Ben nods and jumps to his feet, following the other boy as they make their way through the crew. Said crew smirks at him when he walks past, occasionally muttering something under their breath, but Harry ignores them so Ben tries to do the same.

"Gil, stop scoffing your food and take our royal idiot to the brig, would you?"

Gil glances up at Harry and frowns, his gaze landing on Ben's probably terrified expression. "What'd you do to him in one night?"

Harry just clicks his tongue and walks away, leaving Ben in the company of Gil, who seems to be okay with the ambiguity and just drags Ben back down the stairs and into the little prison.

Just as he's about to leave, Gil turns around with a conflicted look on his face. "Did he hurt you yet?"

Biting his tongue to stop his inner grammar police, Ben shakes his head.

"Did you hurt him yet?"

Again, he shakes his head. Gil nods in satisfaction and turns on his heel, leaving Ben to stare at the wood and its cracks for who knows how long, barely noticing when the sunlight intensifies before fading into a gentle darkness once more.

He's just about fallen asleep when Harry is back, opening the lock and pulling him back to his room once more. The grip on Ben's arm is strong - bordering on painful - until Harry closes the door behind them and lets go as if the contact had physically burned him.

Ben slides to the floor because he doesn't know what to do, he's not trained for something like this, he's never felt more useless.

"I once stepped on my crown," Ben says after a while, trying to fill the silence.

Harry looks at him from where he's lying on the hammock and raises an eyebrow.

"I almost broke it, too, but it was protected with magic so it just blew me backwards and I broke my wrist."

Harry whistles, then sitting up and leaning against the wall. "I fell out of the crow's nest."

"Why were you in a crow's nest?" Ben asks, trying to figure out what kind of crow this must have been to fit a human inside its nest.

Harry just bursts out laughing, almost falling out of the hammock. "The ignorance of royalty. I'm referring to the lookout's station on our ship."

The blood rushes to Ben's face like a moth to a flame and he shuts his eyes for a moment as if blocking his senses can turn back time.

"Were you okay?" Ben asks, his stomach twisting with embarrassment.

Harry grins. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"That doesn't mean you were okay," Ben replies quietly, unsure of where his concern is coming from. The confusion on Harry's face tells him he's just as bewildered.

"There was nobody there, actually, so I was fine."

To Ben, that's the exact opposite of fine. He doesn't verbalise the thought, though, still picturing the dark look Harry had thrown his way earlier.

"Right."

Harry shrugs. "What, you don't like heights?"

"I don't know, I've never been to a height."

"Never?" The shock in Harry's voice is virtually palpable so Ben looks away from his alluring eyes, trying to pull himself together.

"I, uh, no. It's too dangerous..."

"So am I and yet, here you are."

"But it's not like I chose to be here!" Ben argues, then wishes he could take it back.

The expression on Harry's face is one Ben won't ever forget, the combination of surprise, admiration, rejection, disappointment and rage burned into his mind and filed under things he wishes he could prevent from occurring. After a pregnant pause, the pirate gives him a subtle nod, then turns around, lying down and facing the wall, effectively ending their conversation.

Ben stares at his back, remorse filling his veins and regret weighing down his heart. It's too late to go back and not say anything so he just curls up as best as he can and shuts his eyes, hoping he can get to sleep and try to brush off the guilt squirming inside his soul.

"Goodnight," he whispers even though it's really not.

Ben had expected a lot of things from the island, but finding love hadn't been one of them.

When Harry had grabbed him from behind, a lot of things had happened all at once. He'd gasped, tripped, felt a hand around his mouth, heard laughter, and, most strangely, sensed that his heart had skipped a beat.

"What in the bloody hell?" Harry had muttered, almost letting go of him but just managing to keep his composure.

Ben had been frozen, unable to think past the pounding inside his soul and the questions whirling in his brain like a hurricane, so he'd unknowingly allowed himself to be pulled through the shadows and cracks back to Uma's ship.

He hadn't really paid attention to the petite captain's gloating, and he'd been in a state of almost constant confusion, which was probably why he'd been so pliant when being dragged around and tied up.

"Are you even listening to me?" Uma had barked.

He'd been too caught up in his mind full of new possibilities to even hear her. Instead, he'd wondered why he'd never felt this way before, and why it took a villain kid to spark his heart.

His parents had always told him that villain kids were unloving and unlovable, full of malice and rotten to the core. But, whilst sitting on the damp planks of a pirate's ship, he had questioned his blind faith and unquestioning discipline. He'd questioned the unspoken laws and wondered if they were unspoken, not because they were obvious, but because they were waiting to be proved wrong.

The crew had left him alone, a few of them landing an insult or a nudge of hatred here and there, and he couldn't have been more oblivious to the thundering skies and relentless rain.

He'd always tried to avoid the Isle, having been told that it was a place of danger and deceit, but after seeing the lost look in their eyes, he couldn't help but think that he'd been wrong to try and ignore the villain kids.

By the time he'd blinked himself into being somewhat alert and realised that he wasn't with Evie, Jay, and Carlos, the sun had sunk and night had darkened the sky. With a sigh, he'd realised that he couldn't move, that he was propped up against the edge of a ship, and that he was at the mercy of Uma and her crew.

He'd also recognised the fear dimly poking at his heart.

Naturally, he'd ignored it. Everything he'd ever learned was telling him to find a way of helping the villain kids, and find himself an escape route so he could get back to Auradon and put the aforementioned plan into action.

As the rain had soaked his clothes and dripped from his hair, he'd shivered and simply hoped for the best, refusing to give up his optimism. As the pirate crew had laughed into the night, trading cards and taunts, he'd held his breath and shut his eyes. As he'd heard the plans they had for him and the ideas they'd wanted to try on a prince, he'd bitten his lip and tried to sink into slumber.

He'd been hopelessly hopeful.

Harry's already up when Ben yawns and blinks himself awake. When he does so, Harry looks over to him and snorts. "Aren't royals meant to look good in the morning?"

"Who?" Ben asks, then shakes his head. "I mean, what?"

Harry rolls his eyes and pats his back pockets before pulling out a small, rounded shard of mirror. "Take a look, princess."

Ben hesitantly accepts the unconventional mirror, groaning when he sees his hair sticking up in at least eleven different directions. He tries to push it back a few times but only ends up making it worse so he gives up, not wanting to spend too long with someone else's mirror.

"Anything you do would be ruined if Uma threw you off anyway."

"Off?" Ben asks, suddenly more nervous than he'd been at his coronation.

Harry shrugs and takes the mirror back, tucking it into his pocket. "Off. Off the ship. It is an Isle..."

"But I could die."

Raising a ridiculously perfect eyebrow, Harry asks: "Can't you swim?"

"Of course!" Ben replies indignantly, "but it's different... I don't have anywhere to swim to if you throw me off."

He's given only another shrug in response so he stays silent after that, wondering if he's going to spend the day in the brig again or if he'll end up trying to swim back home by the end of the day. He carries on wondering until a girl he's never seen before greets Harry by jumping onto him and locking her legs around his middle.

"Morning," Harry laughs as he spins them around, then gently peels her off and stands her up. It's a routine that's obviously been done before and Ben has never seen a pirate so affectionate, a moment so beautiful.

"You're on lookout duty this week," the girl says once she's steady on her feet again, giving Ben a head-to-toe lookover before adding, "and I'm guessing he's going with you."

This week? Ben frowns in confusion, not having kept track of time at all. He knows they'd come to get Mal in the middle of the week but everything else had blurred together and he hadn't even thought about how much time had passed. He wonders how long his parents will wait before assuming he's not going to come back and moving on from him entirely. Tears prick in his eyes at the thought of being forgotten and left behind but he blinks them away, trying to be stronger and tougher and braver like he should be.

"-llo?" the girl waves a hand in front of his face, clearly exasperated.

"Sorry?" Ben replies, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Told you he's useless," Harry mutters to the girl, who snorts and waves before sauntering off to who knows where for who knows what.

"I'm not useless."

Harry makes a face Ben can't decipher and rolls his eyes. Only then is it that Ben notices he has the beautiful shadows around his eyes again and he can't help wondering how he'd gotten it to be so perfect when everyone back home takes so long - and uses actual mirrors - to make it look even half as good.

He's pulled out of his thoughts when Harry starts walking. It takes Ben a while to notice the accusatory stares of the crew because he's too busy watching the way Harry walks as if he'd invented the action. Unsure of what to do alone, he blindly follows, hoping it's the right thing to do, then regretting his decision when they get to what he now knows is the crow's nest and Harry starts to climb without a second thought, leaving Ben to nervously stare up at him.

"Are you coming or do you prefer swimming?" Harry calls over his shoulder.

As much as Ben wants to say no to both of those options, he can't deny that trying to swim in leather is definitely the worst thing he can think to do so he sighs and starts to climb. It's hard and he slips at least thrice before he even gets halfway but he just grits his teeth and pushes himself to move, needing to prove the pirates wrong and show he's not just useless. While he's dimly aware of Harry watching him from the top, he tries to focus only on the surface underneath his hands and feet, having climbed higher than he's ever done so in his life. It works until it doesn't.

"Your kingdom will fall before you get anywhere, weakling!" Someone yells from the deck, followed by cruel laughter. As if that's not hurtful enough, they must then kick the mast because it vibrates and throws Ben off, his grip failing for a moment.

His heart lurches as his feet slip but he bites back his scream, scrambling for something to hold onto as he sees how far up he is. Even though he'd only slipped a few centimetres, it'd been enough to scare him so he's breathing heavily when he starts to move again, this time faster and less careful. He's ready to give up when his head suddenly crashes into something and he cries out, hugging the mast for dear life as he loses his grip once more.

"Hey, you're at the top now, it's fine," Harry tells him, his voice soft, "but you have to let go and pull yourself up."

Ben shakes his head. "I can't, I can't, I can't do it."

He hears a sigh, then sees a hand in his peripheral vision. Blinking, he looks away from the rope he's holding onto and sees Harry holding out a hand for him to take. Despite everything, Ben doesn't even think before taking the hand, his fingers interlocking with Harry's like they were created for this moment. Then he's being pulled so he kicks himself up to help Harry and, slowly, he's able to crawl through the little door and collapse on the wood, exhausted and slightly embarrassed. He almost misses the cool touch of Harry's hand when they let go of one another.

"There we go," Harry says as he closes the door so neither of them falls, then kneels beside Ben. "You alright?"

Ben nods but he can feel the tears in his eyes so he says nothing, hoping Harry will ignore him or something. He can't understand why anyone would willingly choose to do that more than once and he doesn't even want to think about how he's meant to get back down.

"Hey, princess, come on, it's not that bad."

Harry's voice is soothing but Ben's heart is still racing when he admits: "I never want to do that again."

"It's only one week."

The sound Ben makes is probably akin to a whimper. He goes red immediately, looking anywhere but at Harry to avoid being ridiculed, and is pleasantly surprised when he hears Harry chuckle.

"You are such a princess." Harry grins.

"I wish..." Ben sighs. And, with that, it's Harry's turn to be shocked. Upon seeing his expression, Ben shrugs. "I just... It'd be less of a hassle than being king, you know?"

"I don't," Harry replies honestly.

"Oh, sorry..." Ben mentally kicks himself as he leans against the edge of the crow's nest.

"Not going to stand?" Harry raises an eyebrow again.

Shaking his head, Ben says: "This is more than high enough for me."

Harry smiles in amusement but accepts it at that, turning to watch the waves as if they were truly searching for land in the middle of a storm instead of looking out for visitors or trespassers in a ship stuck at its harbour because its captain wants to be a queen instead.

"-ake up, princess!" a voice hisses at him.

Ben groans himself awake, blinking away the exhaustion and trying to identify whoever's waking him up.

"Harry?" he questions as he sees the unmistakable blue eyes.

"Glad to see you've not gone blind," Harry smirks. "Now, are you awake?"

"Yes?"

Amused, Harry rolls his eyes. "Where are you?"

"Below deck. On the Isle of The Lost...?"

He's relieved to see Harry nod, satisfied. His own unexpected relief doesn't last long because Harry's expression turns from smug to inquisitive within the blink of a blue eye.

"I need to know what it means," Harry tells him, "I need to know what it means that we were glowing?"

Ben's eyes widen; he'd assumed the stories were common knowledge.

"You don't-?" Ben cuts himself off as someone opens the hatch that allows passage to where he's slumped.

Harry's alluring eyes widen as he too hears the sound and, before Ben can take another breath, the first mate has carefully dived behind boxes he hadn't noticed and adeptly hidden from view.

"Morning!" an obviously yawning voice calls.

Ben decides it's best not to reply, which seems like a good idea until there's a knife at his throat and he's trying not to move.

"Didn't your parents teach you any manners?"

"Sorry," Ben gasps, regretting his earlier decision, "good morning?"

"It's not very good for you, unfortunately." Uma steps into his view and kneels down once again, waving away the pirate with a knife to Ben's neck. "Are you ready to tell me now?"

"Tell you what?" Ben asks.

"How to become queen, idiot." Uma's lip crinkles in disgust as she looks over the young king but she's apparently waiting for an answer because she says nothing for the next minute.

"You'd have to, um..."

"Anyone seen my pills?" Harry bellows, wobbling on his feet and faking a yawn that Ben wouldn't know he was faking unless he'd just had a conversation with him.

"What?" Uma asks, clearly surprised.

"Oh." Harry blinks. "I didn't accept anyone to have be here!"

Ben winces at his ridiculous sentence and Uma clearly thinks him to be drunk so she rolls her eyes and walks over to him, grabbing his arm and whispering something in his ear. Harry laughs after a second and looks over to Ben before Uma pulls his chin back to face her and hisses something at him.

Ben frowns at the interaction, wondering why the captain and the first mate have such a violent relationship, but he has no time to draw any conclusions because someone's unlocking the cell he's in and dragging him out, pulling him up the stairs and then depositing him where he'd been kept the first night.

After what his brain classes as forever, someone coughs next to him.

"Ready to eat, princess?"

Forget recognising the voice, all Ben needs to identify Harry is that nickname.

He smiles without meaning to and Harry chuckles again, then curls a finger to tell him to stand up, which he then does, wobbling for a second before mentally telling himself the leather outfit is comfortable and not an absolute menace. Nothing is said as the two of them walk into yet another secluded part of the ship - there's too much space and not enough people, Ben thinks - and Harry gestures for him to sit as he goes to open what's probably meant to be a cupboard but is just a few boxes piled up on each other.

"Thank you," Ben whispers as Harry hands him a sandwich - one with cheese this time. He's not sure why he feels the need to whisper but he can't make himself talk any louder than the quiet hum of people above deck. Harry doesn't object, simply sitting cross-legged in front of Ben and watching as he all but devours the second sandwich of his time in captivity. It's only after he's finished that he realises to ask: "Aren't you eating?"

The first mate grins at him. "Don't you ever get tired of being polite?"

Blinking, Ben shakes his head.

Harry doesn't reply and picks up the hook Ben's ashamed to admit he hadn't noticed the pirate remove. It's a simple act, to pick up a hook, but Ben can see the way it causes Harry's entire demeanour to change. He watches as the blue-eyed pirate stiffen and hold himself to appear taller, more confident, and so much more attractive. As soon as he thinks that, Ben's face and pulse freeze, hoping that pirates can't read minds. He's getting married to Mal, he can't be finding some random pirate, especially the first mate of the captain that wants him dead, attractive. Maybe, he decides, it was just his inner Belle appreciating the beauty in the world, a beauty that Harry happened to have.

"What are you thinking about now, princess?" Harry raises an eyebrow so high it vanishes under his smooth locks.

Using a slow blink as the response to Harry's questions for the second time, Ben has to clear his throat before he can say, "Nothing."