A Booty That Just Won't Quit

It was all forbidden magic. Spells for teleporting a body, spells for flying without the need for Sylph shoes, spells for healing-

He stopped, reading more closely before growling in frustration and moving on. Qifrey wasn’t sick, he didn’t have a cold or anything he just needed for the tree to go away. He needed… he needed a way to make Qifrey anxious, again. Like he had been before. 

Even as he flipped through pages and tried to absorb any possible solutions, Olly felt a part of him realize what he would be missing. Because whatever solution he found… Qifrey had only just started opening up more in the last year. He had starting sharing how he wanted to live outside of the Great Hall, somewhere with stars and fresh air. How he wanted to be happy, to have a home full of laughter, just like when they were both red-faced in Qifrey’s bedroom from some joke or giggling as they sprinted away from one of their Masters. Qifrey had said he wanted to be a great witch, to help the people around him like Beldaruit and Olly did. 

Olly didn’t feel particularly helpful right now, frantically turning pages and hoping his pyreball was still going. 

Qifrey had said he wanted to grow old. Then he had turned red, tried to hide his cheeks in the sleeves of his cloak as he tucked his face into his knees and asked if maybe Olly wanted some of those things too. As if he hadn’t already been rewriting his own future to live in the country. He could take commissions and Qifrey could use his time to just help the community and they could be happy and grow old together. They could both be happy. 

And… and maybe, once Qifrey wasn't overwhelmed by the Great Hall and the witches and everything, maybe he would want some of the same things Olly did. Like holding hands and, maybe, even a kiss or two. It would be fine, if not. Olruggio just wanted Qifrey, whatever that looked like. 

As long as it wasn’t what he looked like when he left him, barely awake and looking like a body slung in a tree. That was the only future Olly couldn’t live with. 

So he continued to scan, flipping pages and reading as quick as he dared, trying to ignore the desperate churning in his stomach. Qifrey would be alive. He would be awake and alive. Olly would fix it. 

“Please, please please,” he whispered to the empty room, “there has to be something to help him.”

To help us, he thought, as he flipped to a page with a memory erasure spell. Only, rather than the type the Knights used that would wipe every memory attached to magic this one would erase specific memories. 

He couldn’t do that to Qifrey again, he had worked so hard to figure out his past. If he erased his memory of tonight, they would be right back to the start. 

He was about to turn the page when he paused. 

What if Olly erased his own memory.

He didn’t want that, he wanted to know what Qifrey was carrying, no matter how heavy but… but if Qifrey needed to be worried, to be upset and never give himself a moment’s break… 

Making him take Olly’s memories would probably do that. 

Actually, he was certain it would. Qifrey could barely handle Olly sitting in a ditch with sawbush leaves scratching at him a bit. He had been in tears over Olly facing the liongoats. The other day, Olly had dropped a big book on his foot and hopped around cursing while Qifrey panicked and shoved him into a chair and whipped his boot off to make sure he was fine. Which, obviously, he was because it was just a book and it stung but he wasn’t hurt except that Qifrey had still looked nervous and teary. 

Making him do something as terrible as wipe Olly’s memory, especially after just getting his own back… it would work. 

Qifrey might never forgive him, but they would both be alive. 

With shaking hands he pulled his ink from his pouch and unstopped it, tears already flowing so heavily it was easy to catch a few. He would probably need Qifrey’s too, just to be safe. He didn’t want it to only take this memory. 

“Please,” he whispered as he stoppered the vial and tucked it safely away. 

This had to work. 

He took a deep breath as he got to his feet, one breath to plaster a smile on his face and convince his friend to let him do the unthinkable so they would have a shred of a chance as the future they wanted, before he was off, sprinting back towards the silverwood and Qifrey.