Butterflies and Hurricanes

Snow was falling in hordes of liberation, transforming the dull colours of autumn into a pristine white on its first touches on Hogwarts. Like everything and everywhere else in life, there were those who were cheered by this prospect, and there were certainly those who chose to mope about in the castle, and to stare out at a random window while looking vacantly contemplative. Trent would have been expected to take part in the latter, something of which Byron would have mocked at again as yet another meaningless activity of angst or sentimentality that some teenagers have an odd tendency towards.

Today was exceptional, however, only because Trent had woken up on the wrong side of the bed, which really set him right, in Byron's opinion. It was, nonetheless, a sudden change. Just the previous night, Byron had noticed that Trent was brooding yet again. By now, it was so very clear who the brooding was done for. And by now, even Byron was beginning to realise the feelings Trent seemed to have for Millie. After all, as worried as he was himself over the girl's recent condition, Byron was not as overwhelmed by it as Trent. With that understanding, he had also begun to let Trent be. All the time and effort spent pushing and pulling the other boy around, trying to get him involved in life itself, were beginning to look like a waste to Byron, who was getting tired of the emotional weight that Trent seemed to always be carrying around.

But yes, Trent had woken up on the wrong/right side of the bed today, as if he was possessed by a happy Winter spirit, and woke Byron up with proclamation of snow outside. Not long after, the two boys found themselves outside, running in the snow, and then engaging in a random snowball fight with even more random others. The other set of boys, Ravenclaws, then began to roll around in the snow. Byron, of course, took part in the mindless activity without hesitation. The big grin on his face was, again, of much amusement to Trent, who had stood there with raised eyebrows, before remembering how he had decided the night before that he would try happy for a day, and see how that would work out. Millie, however, was a hard thought to get out of his mind. Even in the stupidity of an activity that should rob him of brain cells to think, Trent had his head full of the girl. Byron, however, took joy in this seemingly unprecedented change in his friend, and perked up a lot more, thinking that good was surely going to come out of December. It was, after all, the month of Christmas.

Hunger and the cold got the best of the boys, who after a couple of hours in the snow, had to run back into the castle for its refuge of warmth. No sooner had lunch been digested, did Byron ventured an invitation to Trent, where the other boys in the dorm were supposedly going to a random part of the castle because Spencer had somehow been asked by a group of Hufflepuff girls to bring his friends along for a cookie picnic. Trent had been half-puzzled and half-amused when Byron was trying to explain the point of it. But, yet again, he retreated back to the Gryffindor common room, leaving Byron with whatever was supposedly much better than cooping oneself up alone in the dorm.

While the common room was rather filled with students, especially those from the younger years, Trent's dorm was emptied out of boys who were certainly more keen to while the rest of their day away with their new Hufflepuff girlfriends. Without much other thought than Millie in his head as usual, Trent spun around at where he stood staring at the empty dorm, and landed on his back against his bed, legs up in the air. With his arms spread wide beside his body, Trent began to drum his fingers lightly against the bed as he observed his plimsoll shoes. The music in his head trailed away, and he proceeded to drop his legs and let them hang at the end of his bed, just as him drumming stopped. Thankfully, he could hear the muffled conversations that filled the common room downstairs, and so Trent did not have to deal with a deafening silence which would be a sure catalyst to yet another day of brooding. Still, he sighed out of habit, and began to let his mind wander.

The proclamation fell on deaf ears despite the volume in which it was declared and, pasting a grin on his face that made her question his sexuality greatly, Elliot made an incomprehensible squeal of a sound before taking her hand and pulling Millie through the store in a fashion similar to the way he had dragged her into it in the first place. He seemed to be the more enthusiastic of the two siblings, admittedly. The girl’s lips were pulled together in a scowl that made her look uncannily like her mother and it was a miracle that she hadn’t caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror. The horror that would have befallen her features simply couldn’t have been described. It is rather a good thing she was so focused on glaring at the back of her brother’s blonde head rather than helping him find his non-girlfriend-girlfriend a Christmas present. Sarah was still (unfortunately for her, Millie didn’t forget to add) the object of Elliot’s affections. Millie thought it all rather sweet up until this morning when he insisted that she go into Hogsmeade with him, as if she’d know exactly what Sarah would like for Christmas because she and Millie shared the same chromosomes. Double X or not -- didn’t mean a thing. At this rate, Millie was envisioning Elliot as Sarah’s gay best friend rather than her lover. He was acting far too camp for her tastes; for anyone’s, in fact.

The day hadn’t begun as poorly as the current events would like to suggest. No, Millie hadn’t been woken up by her worrisome sibling in his haste to buy his non-girlfriend-girlfriend a Christmas present. In fact she’d had a rather lazy morning where she was able to come to from slumber under her own steam and wander down into the kitchens for a cup of coffee and something to eat. She’d only intended on eating one of the leftover sausage rolls from the night before but instead the House Elves had been quick to cook her up a hearty breakfast that she would have had no trouble devouring before she’d had her encounter with Felix. She did struggle with the breakfast, she was willing to admit that, but she’d done a lot better than she’d thought. Her stomach hadn’t turned at the thought of consuming something; it had instead lurched in excitement, at the thought of getting anything at all. She’d emerged from the kitchen with an impossibly wide smile on her face and it was then that she was greeted by her panicking brother who was going into self-destruct mode upon the realisation that Christmas was almost a blink of an eye away. Okay, so maybe that was a little bit of an exaggeration but still, it wasn’t far away - that was the point and that was what she was sticking too. Besides, it certainly made her brother’s worry less unfounded. It was though - his worry - it was completely unfounded. He didn’t need to buy her anything. They weren’t anything. It wasn’t until Elliot explained that he wanted them to be something Millie nodded her head in understanding - false understanding though it was.

Something Millie would have loved to know was where her brother got all his money from. He bought an array of things while they were in Hogsmeade and though Millie couldn’t remember what it was, she certainly remembered the price tags. She couldn’t help but wonder whether there was a point where he would have wanted to dote upon her like that. It was certainly unlikely but she couldn’t not admire his patience and his perseverance. She didn’t know why he didn’t just duel Graham for Sarah and the look she received from Elliot upon voicing that was not the most appraising of stares. In fact, he looked downright scandalised. Millie merely shrugged her shoulders in response, looped her arm with his and turned her attention back to the lollypop he’d bought her from Honeydukes. Eventually she knew that Elliot would run out either of money or steam and Hogsmeade would shut its shops - thankfully he ran out of money first and he dejectedly made his way back up to the castle, his arms laden with bags as she trailed behind with her lolly in hand. Clearly, that was far more interesting than her brother’s plight.

She didn’t follow him to his ever changing destination like she had done for most of the afternoon. Instead she made her way up to the Gryffindor tower where she quickly discarded her own purchases and began to wander around the tower. The carpet was soft underfoot, tickling her almost. She couldn’t help but giggle at the feeling and she froze at the sound of it as it bubbled from her lips. For some reason, the sound made her chest ache and her arms wound around herself, groping at her sides as if questioning the way she was sewn together. It didn’t take as long as usual to bring herself out of the feeling of uncertainty though and she plastered a smile back on her face before skipping out of the dormitory, tossing her coat onto the nearest bed as she departed. Millie’s first trip was downstairs to see if the little forth year she’d given her essay to had finished with it. He seemed to be enamoured with the text, from the spelling mistakes to the smear of chocolate across’ the bottom. It was as if he couldn’t quite figure out why the paper had gotten an ‘O’. She wasn’t entirely sure either, in fairness, but she decided to leave him to mull over that and she skipped back up the stairs, this time electing to enter the boy’s dorm instead.

She didn’t intend on finding herself alone in the boy’s dorm with Trent again. However, she wasn’t going to linger in the doorway as she wanted to. Instead, with a true smile creeping onto her face, she launched herself across the room and landed on his bed, bouncing the pair a few times before the springs of the bed settled. “Hello Trentypoo!” She cooed. “Where’s Byron and Spencer and everyone else? I could tell you where Brother-Bot is but no one wants to listen to his personal tragedies. Why couldn’t you or Byron ‘accompany’ him into Hogs today, eh?!” She pushed his shoulder playfully as if to reinforce her point. “I had to follow him around pretending to be interest in the frilly underwear he wanted to buy Sarah! Oh god it was horrific!” She exclaimed with a dramatic flair before flopping down on her back beside Trent. “How are you?” She inquired with an easy smile.

Trent didn't think much about the footsteps that grew louder and louder, signalling the approach of another and then clearly indicating that the pair of feet that was responsible for them had found its destination at his door. Still, Trent paid no mind to it, thinking it was just one of the boys back early from what must have been a less than eventful indoor picnic, not until a weight landed next to him in the bed. On reflex, Trent would have tackled whoever it was to shove him off the bed, since it would be assumed that it was another boy from his dorm. Oddly, even his senses were quicker than his reflex this time. There was no mistaking the smell of the person who had landed herself next to him. And then, for once, Trent didn't feel bad for not being social with the others. Even if not romantically motivated, he was chronically missing his friend. Of course, the lines of friendship and more had been blurred, so that it was not really accurate to fall on that conclusion.

Thankfully for Trent, Millie was tall but really didn't weigh much. The arm that she had landed on when she pounced onto his bed felt nothing more than the pressure of her weight, rather than get hurt from the impact. The bed, however, still bounced a couple of times, and Trent grinned at how silly both of them must look. At Millie's surprisingly affectionate greeting, given how it had been a long while since that warm familiarity was the exchange between both, Trent hugged her close before releasing his hold to look at her properly. Pushing the slight confusion in his mind away, he offered a rather genuine smile.

"Mopheaddd," Trent returned, before shifting a little to make space for Millie. "Well ..." he eyed the beds as if he did not already know they were empty. "Byron mentioned something about Spencer talking about girls ... and cookies ... and they all went on excitedly. So ..." Trent shrugged. "... So I guard the place," he concluded promptly, beaming at himself as if it was the best thing he had done. "Blankets and spliffs work better for me, I think." And then he shrugged again. "Dunno." Soon enough, Trent began to chuckle, staring at Millie incredulously. "Frilly underwear? Elliot is buying Sarah frilly underwear?!" The mental image of Sarah in said underwear then made Trent burst out into something more akin to laughter than a mere chuckle. "I would have helped if Elliot asked, really. Probably get him to model them while I pick." Then more laughter. And then Trent stared at Millie strangely. "I didn't peg you as someone we could go to for underwear advice. Hmmm."

Amidst looking contemplative, Trent caught the question of concern, something he assumed was really what Millie wanted to know about simply because he was always ready for loaded conversations about Millie, to Millie, and from Millie. He had gone more than mad from his feelings for the girl. Trent paused in his laughter and looked at her, holding back the long embrace he was extremely tempted to give simply because he was uncertain and really did think about the last time he saw her, battered and upset from her injuries and ordeal, an event of which she still did not tell him about, and of which Trent had been running too many scenarios in his mind while he worried himself over what could possibly have happened.

"I'm ... I'm me. It's not always rainbows and butterflies, but I survive." A second of a slight smile, then the expression on Trent's face resumed contemplation, trying to decide what was possibly in Millie's mind. "I'm more ..." He bit his lower lip. "I'm more interested in asking you how you are, though." Trent continued to gaze at her, a little too solemnly than he should.

There wasn’t a room in the castle that could rival the Gryffindor tower, the dormitories in particular. On occasion, Millie would allow herself to wonder where she would’ve been residing had she not ended up in the house of the lion, the house of crimson and gold. She wondered sometimes whether she would’ve ended up in Slytherin had her traits been skewed slightly as she’d grown and matured from birth to the point she’d entered Hogwarts. Of course she’d grown and matured since, cultivating new traits under the watchful eye of her Head of House, James Wilson. Still, Millie couldn’t help but brood over the little things that could have potentially changed the way she carried herself post-sorting. If she hadn’t gone to Gryffindor and had perhaps shown traits that leant to another house, would she have been the same person? Would she have known Trent and Co? Probably not. This was something she didn’t particularly like the idea of, and understandably so, so she didn’t pay it much mind for any length of time. For now, especially now, she wouldn’t dwell on the what-ifs and what-have-you’s, she’d instead focus on the vision of Trent before her - the real one, not the dream.

Just like before, it almost felt bizarre being in his presence again. She understood now though that underneath that bizarre coating that covered her emotions and, perhaps, the majority of her actions, was the familiarity of Trent that she craved so. His smell under her nose was almost dizzying but not overpowering to the point of it being horrible. It was him, the essence of his very person. To be surrounded by that again was the dizzying thing. She both adored it and was stunned by it at the same time. Yet, the stunning wasn’t as great as her dizzy mind would have imagined. She fell into his presence with startling ease and as she smiled at him, she realised that her thoughts were truly irrelevant. It didn’t matter how she felt, how he made her felt. The latter did, of course, but what mattered was the fact that they were there together, in each other’s presence again.

Millie scuttled off of Trent’s arm once the bed had recovered from her bouncing on it as abruptly as she had done. She smiled a sweet, truly genuine smile at him and tipped her head to the side as she listened to him rumble out his words. She giggled involuntarily and slapped her hand to her mouth, hoping to stifle them before the sprouted from her chest in great unstoppable bouts. Her cheeks flushed and she let her head fall forward and giggled into her lap until the vibrations in her chest subsided from it. It was the first time she had truly laughed in weeks and she didn’t know what for. Probably the knickers.

“Elliot doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going,” Millie scoffed with a shrug of her shoulders as she blew a pesky strand of hair from her eyes. “He’s desperate to impress - which I can understand considering the fact that he is merely a speck in Sarah’s existence, poor guy - but even so! Ugh. He’s just so...” Millie screwed up her face, her words failing her as she ran out of syllables and letters to use in order to describe her insufferable brother. She settled with shrugging her shoulders again and allowing another giggle to prance past her lips as she moved forward to touch her forehead to Trent’s. “Hello Trentypoo. I’ve missed you.” She grinned wickedly at him and pulled away from him again. Millie then sat back against the poster at the bottom of the bed and brought her lengthy legs up to rest over his. She smiled once more and placed her hands in her lap. She twiddled her thumbs together idly and smiled almost dreamily at him before perking up once more.

“I’m fine, as ever. Fine is good. Fine is constant. Hungry, though. Funny, eh?” Millie’s smile widened a little more and she peered at Trent, sitting forward slightly. “You know...” She paused and brought her lips together, frowning ever so slightly before picking up where she trailed off, “I think you’ve got sleepier since I last saw you. What are you doing still lounging in bed you lazy lout?! We need to do something! We need to go somewhere! We need to be active before we grow grey, wrinkled and are too exhausted to move!”

Trent tried to draw himself away from the gravity of his emotions, eager to meet with the the seemingly cheery candour of Millie. The solemnity on his face made a gradual move towards meeting the earnest smile on the girl's face. Millie's laughter brushed him with the warmth he yearned very much for in her presence, and sure enough, he chuckled along with it, pleased with the very act of the girl laughing. Trent smiled with a rare gleam in his eyes as he watched her talk, as if his ears had compelled a celebration of their pleasure on his face, at the tickle of her voice. Millie's affections were overwhelming. The familiarity and the loveliness of them consumed the shadows that he had allowed to cloud his emotions just moments ago. At the touch of her forehead to his, Trent indulged in the smell of the girl, looking at her with a dreamy expression as he chuckled yet again.

"Sod off, Mophead." As quickly as he dished out the needed disclaimer to the intensity of his feelings for Millie, Trent reached out a hand to hold her wrist lightly, as if preventing her expected playful attempt to grant his lying words their wish. With that, he sent a look of imploration, as if that sufficiently explained the fraud in his two words that wanted to send her away, and made it enough to convince her to stay with him. Thankfully, Trent felt the weight of Millie's legs above his. Satisfied, he shifted to accommodate them.

"You're always hungry, you pig." Trent grinned before that face of imploration for forgiveness came on again, and he moved even closer to Millie without knowing he was attempting to. "I just fought a battle, pet. Byron and I, entrenched in the snow! Outnumbered! But we outlasted! Shoulder to shoulder, back to back. The partnership that triumphed!" At that last exclamation, Trent had his arm thrust out and up, a dramatic performance to accompany the exaggerated retelling of a mere snowball fight between teenage boys. "Plagued by battle wounds, we are ... I am." Trent nodded and continued, "nevertheless, stronger than before. Yup." He grinned.

"So you see, my rest is justified. You, however, what's the reason for the invasion?" Trent then sat up, held Millie's legs in support, as he shifted to sit and face her.