#cpxelio

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.

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.

      - sometime in the morning - Slytherin dungeons

Not many things managed to bug Christopher, he just wasn’t an easy guy to annoy, believe it or not. However, the few things that did hit him, managed to be worse than trying to snatch Pollux’ candy when he was on a craving for sweets - and Christopher had seen what happened to Elio when he tried to pull that stunt, in fact, the photo of the older Slytherin sprawled on the floor after a well aimed depulso was still in one of his albums.

Christopher looks over his shoulder to the white mink perched on his shoulder. “ Are you sure you didn’t see my camera? ” he asks. Bubbles merely sniffs the air before turning over to quietly sit inside the hood on Christopher’s cape, leaving the Slytherin boy to look for the missing object on his own.

He wasn’t one to misplace things, especially his camera, he was more likely to forget his wand than his camera. And that is saying a lot. This could only mean someone was to blame. Perhaps he was victim of a prank, or perhaps someone is just trying to get on his nerves.

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 Castor (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. 

After the Quidditch match

Castor was the last one to hop off his broom, having decided to take a couple more laps around the field while the sea of green and silver invaded the field.

He was seething.

He was quickly surrounded by his own team mates and fans, offering congratulations and consolation on what had been a very intense game yet Castor’s thrist for winning and to excel made him secretly want to push through everyone arround him and quickly make his way towards the castle, break a few things... maybe also scream onto his pillow a bit.

What happened? Castor and his team were in top shape yet Castor felt that his inability to push back all the events from that week and the circumstances of his brother’s disappearance for a few days were the biggest factor, making him unable to hit the bludgers right and at some point nearly falling off his broom.

However he turns back to the cheering crowd, easily finding the pink haired Captain, with his arms in the air while laughing obnoxiously and forced a polite smile onto his face to greet his rival.

“Elio!” he calls loud enough while pushing through the fans towards the slytherin. Be polite, be polite, be polite he kept repeating in his head. He was representing Gryffindor after all.

“That was a good game, your team played well.” a circle had formed around both captains and Castor extended his hand. “Congratulations on your win.”

not sure how to feel about this piece of information

raises a broom

Oh I know you are for sure. (’ squints at )