He really shouldn’t be doing this, he knew that. But still, it wasn’t like Lysander was going to burn the place down, and he couldn’t possibly be any worse than Joe. Maybe that’s why he was willing to do it; Lysander with his pretending to be Lorcan reminded Darren of his brother. Besides, if he thought Lysander couldn’t charm his way into the tower through one of the girls he was kidding himself. At least if Darren was the one to let him in he could keep an eye on the other boy. And the password would change the Monday back from holiday, so it was almost no risk. Except to Lorcan.

He was waiting in the common room, his books spread out on a table in front of one of the fires. He’d been actually putting effort into the homework this week, and had been nagging Joe about it as well. They needed to do well. Brian would have wanted them to do well, and he’d have had them holed up in their room or the library studying to make sure each boy passed with decent marks. It was the one time it always felt like Brian was taking care of him instead of the other way around.

He couldn’t ignore the fact there was another reason he wanted to spend more time with Lysander. There was something about the boy that made Darren edgy. He was too demanding, too smooth, he reminded Darren of a less overt version of Vincent, the few times he’d met the transfer. Despite everything, he hadn’t forgotten his reason behind coming back instead of agreeing to homeschool or transferring, and so long as one slightly suspicious person was dying to get access to his commons, why not make the best of it? Even if Lysander had nothing or knew nothing, he’d make a valuable ally regardless.