I Wouldn’t Be (Adrian)

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

Max was still adjusting to the routine of being a Prefect, news that had practically blindsided her to begin with. She still wasn’t certain who had decided she was cut out for the position, but things weren’t completely horrible. Then again, she hadn’t even been in the position for a full week, so there was ample time for things to change—good or bad, the voice inside of her head reminded her as she continued going up along with the moving staircase. If she was correct, she thought, this one would stop at the landing where one could enter the Gryffindor Common Room.

It was only her first time doing an actual round of the castle, but there would be plenty more of them. Her partner for the night’s rounds had gone ahead of her to try to finish their rounds of the castle that much sooner, and she couldn’t blame them for trying. Taking her time on the staircase and staying put instead of trying to rush on it was probably the safer option, anyway. Besides, standing on the staircase gave her a good vantage point to see who was misbehaving on the floors below—or that was what Max had told herself, at least.

She glanced back up at some of the portraits on the walls. Some were asleep, as most of the castle was hopefully preparing to do, while others were still talking amongst themselves in hushed tones. Max then turned her attention to the portrait of the Fat Lady, still awake in her frame. Beyond there, she remembered, was Adrian—back at Hogwarts again from America. He was using his mother’s name, rather than Greyback, but she didn’t think that he could have changed substantially in under a year. Really, she had missed him—even more because of what had happened to Elias—and was glad that he was safe.

@adrian

[Deleted]

Adrian was bummed that he hadn't spent a lot of time with Maxima yet, seeing that she was his last sibling left at Hogwarts aside from the American ones. They had been close, as close as Adrian really let himself be with anyone that is. He decided, now that he was settled back in, it was a good time to try and track her down. And he couldn't believe that she was a prefect! I mean, it wasn't really that surprising but still, it was big news. So, he decided to make his way toward the Slytherin common room this evening in hopes she'd be out and about like prefects did.

He got lucky and saw her on the moving staircases as he made his way down. "Max!" he called down the stairs, though they were two whole moving staircases apart. "Hey - stop on that floor I'll meet you there," he called down. The moving staircases had to be the strangest thing about Hogwarts....

maxima ruqayyah greyback

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

“Max!”

Not expecting anyone to be yelling her name all of a sudden, Max startled and gripped her fingers tightly around the banister. She eased up, even relaxed, when she realized that the voice was Adrian’s. Had she started hearing things that weren’t actually there? She had gotten the ability to heal people somehow, but she didn’t think that she was starting to hallucinate, too.

She looked again and saw that it really was him. Adrian. He was lucky that she couldn’t deduct points from Gryffindor, much less for scaring her, but she was relieved to see him. He was on his way down the staircase, for some reason or another, but he called for her to stay put once the section of the staircase upon which she was standing came to a stop, and he’d meet her there.

Gesturing an exaggerated thumbs-up to keep from hollering and disturbing anyone unnecessarily, Max couldn’t help herself from grinning as she waited for the stairs to continue on their way. Adrian wasn’t wrong, and the section of the staircase stopped a moment later, allowing her to disembark with relative ease. She stood on the landing and rocked back onto her heels as she watched and waited for her older half-brother, still smiling at the realization that he was back.

@adrian

[Deleted]

His sister gave him a grin and a thumbs up, which didn't surprise him. He hadn't really expected her to holler back. He wasn't opposed to yelling down to her, obviously, but Max was a different soul in that regard. In a lot of regards, really. But he cared for her, of course. And it was hard for him to accept siblings at first, but being gone had made him want to cherish them even more. He just felt bad that he hadn't got to spend Jamie's last semester with her.

Max stepped off the step and he made his way down to her, grinning widely when he finally reached where she was. "Hey, you," he greeted, more formally than the yelling but still not all that formal. "Look how cute you are with your prefect badge," he teased, pointing at it and laughing.

maxima ruqayyah greyback 

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

Adrian finally reached where she stood, and Max could not have been happier to have him there in front of her. She was glad to see that he was grinning, too, because it made her feel less silly about her own inability to stop smiling. "Hey, you," he said when he reached her, pointing out the badge on her robes. "Look how cute you are with your prefect badge."

If it were anyone else, Max knew that her reaction wouldn't have been as warm. "Cute" really wasn't a word that she cared to have used to describe her, most of the time. Puppies, for example, were cute; she, on the other hand, was just trying to do the role with which she had been entrusted.

"What is this?" Max questioned him, shaking her head as she giggled. "No 'I missed you, Max'?" She had no doubt that Adrian had missed her, too, by his reaction to seeing her, but she had to tease him for it. They hadn't been so close before he'd left, but Max hoped that maybe that would change before he left school for good.

Max paused for a moment, rocking back and forth on her feet in place before speaking up. "…Can I hug you?"

@adrian

[Deleted]

Max called him out on not starting with saying he missed her, teasing him back. He grinned, shaking his head a little as he chuckled. "I was getting to that," he countered. For a short moment they were silent, until Max spoke up again - asking if she could hug him. "Oh. Yes, yeah of course," he took the step forward, holding his arms out in order to wrap them around her. He hadn't been sure if she would want that, so he was glad that she instigated it. He had wanted to hug her, and as he did he felt a strong emotion well up in his throat for a split second. If it had been Jamie, he was sure she would have tackled him without him even asking - which was just Jamie, but he preferred this way. In the sense that they took a moment to take each other in before she had suggested it, and that she wasn't afraid to ask. "I did miss you, Max," he added after a moment.

maxima ruqayyah greyback

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

Neither she nor Adrian had ever been particularly affectionate people, so much so that Max knew that Lily or Jamie or even Odette would have laughed if they saw the two of them and their exchange with one another. After she had scolded him for not saying that he missed her, Adrian had said that he was "getting to that." That would have been good enough for Max, in truth, to know that he missed her even if he didn't say it outright.

And then she did something that was unlike herself, asking Adrian if she could hug him. He stepped forward first, holding out his arms. Max then stepped towards him and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. It might have been so different from the way she usually was, but it was in such stark contrast to the way she had been back when she had first met him properly that it almost made her want to laugh. Who, back then, would have thought that she and Adrian would have been treating one another like family?

It felt good to be hugging Adrian, but what was even nicer were the words he spoke. "I did miss you, Max," he admitted to her. There was no doubting it, and Max knew that he was sincere.

"I missed you, Adrian," Max replied, holding her hug for just a moment more before pulling away. "And I'm happy that you're back," she continued, breathing in, "and that you're safe." It meant more to her that he was alright than she could put into words without sounding completely sappy. "And I don't even care that you've gone and changed your name," although it had certainly sounded weird when she'd heard someone call him "Adrian Lange" and not "Adrian Greyback". "You're still a Greyback to me," Max smiled.

@adrian

[Deleted]

She said she missed him too, and they took another moment before they pulled back. She said she was glad he was back and safe and he nodded. She added that she didn't care that he changed his last name and he smiled a little. "Yeah, yeah I am," he agreed. He was definitely still a Greyback... but he had felt it was time to move on from that name in his life and make a name for himself outside of it - even though he had fought so hard to change the meaning of 'Greyback' for so many years. He had done his time.

"I'm glad you're safe, too. Things have been... well I just can't believe what happened with the boat and the ship," he said, shaking his head. "I'm surprised they even let anybody back this year, let alone inviting all of the American kids to come. Any American parent with any sense wouldn't have sent their kid here," he half joked, but he was frowning slightly. "Bet being a prefect is a lot more work now, too. Do you patrol the halls often?"

maxima ruqayyah greyback

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

Adrian expressed that he was glad that she was safe, too, as he expressed his dismay at what had happened to the Beauxbatons carriage and the Durmstrang ship. He was surprised, he said, that Hogwarts had let anyone return for the year, much less that they had invited the students from Ilvermorny to come after what had happened to their school.

"Any American parent with any sense wouldn't have sent their kid here," he added and frowned.

Maxima swallowed. They were lucky that it hadn't been the Hogwarts castle that had ended damaged or destroyed. He was probably right, too, that it had been a bad move to send the Americans to Hogwarts. She wasn't sure if her mother and stepfather would have sent her to Hogwarts, if she had been in that position, but she doubted it. If she were a parent, too, she guessed that she probably would have done everything she could to keep her children at home and away from the danger.

"Bet being a prefect is a lot more work now, too. Do you patrol the halls often?"

Max wasn't really sure how much more or less she was patrolling than the prefects of years past, but it wasn't infrequent that they were doing rounds. The goal seemed to be to ensure that there would be a pair of eyes everywhere at all possible times. "I feel like the adults do more of it," she said, "than any of us." It was, maybe, a vain attempt at not putting teenagers in harm's way.

"But it isn't like we haven't already, you know…" Kidnappings, murders, explosions… the death of their own half-brother. They had been through enough to know that the world wasn't exactly a safe place for anyone. "Those of us from Hogwarts, anyway. it doesn't really change much for us now, does it?"

@adrian

[Deleted]

Max said she felt like the adults did most of the hall watching and all, which made sense. It was probably a lot wiser to do things that way. She started to talk about how they had already had other bad things going on. Of course Adrian knew all that, too. He was at the kidnappings and was around for the murders and all. She said this all didn't change much for them and he nodded, "I just kind of expect the worse at this point," he admitted slowly. "Come on, let's walk and talk about something more cheery. Like Christmas this year. You got any plans?" he asked.

maxima ruqayyah greyback

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

Adrian admitted to her that he expected the worst, at that point. They all were, Max assumed, even the students who had only just come to Hogwarts from Ilvermorny. Whatever came next, she knew that it would be devastating—especially if it happened at Hogwarts. Somehow, most recently, Hogwarts itself had been spared. It wasn't as though Max thought about the possibility of another attack of some sort on the castle all of the time, but she didn't not think about it. The thought—the thought that danger was just around the corner—was always there. Late at night, when she was in her bed, was usually when those thoughts hit the hardest. It wasn't how she wanted to live her life, but it was how she had to. Especially as a prefect, she was entrusted with the safety of her fellow students.

"Come on, let's walk and talk about something more cheery," came Adrian's voice again, which broke her from the possibility of entering a downward spiral with her thoughts. Max would gladly take that invitation—both for her sanity's sake and because it would allow her to catch up with Adrian even more.

"Like Christmas this year."

Christmas? Already? Max eyed her half-brother curiously.

"You got any plans?"

"The term just started, and you're already thinking about Christmas?" Max questioned Adrian, a slight laugh escaping her lips. She hadn't had much time to think about the first few deadlines she had to make with her schoolwork; she definitely hadn't been thinking about Christmas yet. There were months left for that. Still, since Adrian had asked, Max felt obligated to answer him. "I mean, since there isn't a Yule Ball or anything this year, I guess I'll be going home to my mum and Mike," she told Adrian hesitantly. That seemed like the most likely plan, at least. She assumed that her mother and stepfather would want her home for the holidays. Some of the Americans probably would have to stay at Hogwarts, on the other hand, which would probably mean prefect duties over Christmas, too. "I, er, haven't really made plans or anything yet, though," she added, then she looked to Adrian again. "What about you?"

@adrian

[Deleted]

She questioned that he was already thinking of Christmas and he chuckled, shrugging. "I'm just already missing my mum, is all," he explained. She said she'd probably be going back to her mum and Mike. "Makes sense. I know a lot of my classmates from Ilvermorny are staying here - it's just easier, but mum needs me, so." He didn't mind airplanes either, and he actually preferred them to trying maybe more risky magical forms of travel to get all the way to another country.

She asked what his plans were, "yeah, I'll be going back to L.A. to see her," he answered. "I think we might try New York or something cool, but the trip isn't that long and it's across the whole continent so," he shrugged again. "I considered staying here... but I'm still not sure where I'll live after I graduate so I'm going to try and focus on mum and all."

He continued walking, stepping onto one of the stairs. "Any other news with you?"

maxima ruqayyah greyback

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

Adrian said that he was missing his own mother, which Max could understand. She couldn't imagine being on a different continent from hers, as so many people who were now attending Hogwarts were from their parents and everything that they had ever known. His mother needed him, which was why he would be returning to her, to Los Angeles. They would possibly try to fit in a trip to New York, he added, but he wasn't sure about that just yet.

Neither was he sure about where he would end up living once he graduated from Hogwarts, he added, so it was easier for him to focus on his mother. While Max understood his concerns, she also didn't want him to leave again. Too many people she loved had ended up too far out of her reach, though it would only be another year after that before she would be able to see him again, if he did leave.

"Any other news with you?"

Max followed Adrian onto the stairs, standing beside him. "Actually," she began, "erm, there is something else you should know." She paused, watching her hand as she set it on the railing, and breathed in. It never got any easier to explain what she was about to. "Last spring," she prefaced, lowering her voice as she spoke. "I… I learnt that I've got this—this… power, I guess?" It was a little bit like how Muggles got turned into superheroes in some of their stories, she supposed. She didn't know exactly how it worked or how she had even ended up with it—something that she had been struggling to work out ever since—but that was the closest frame of reference that she had.

She looked back up to make eye contact with Adrian. "I can heal people just by touching them," she revealed. "No wand… nothing. I don't know how to explain it without sounding mad, but it's not normal healing magic."

@adrian

[Deleted]

She said there was something he should know, and his eyes followed her hand to the railing as well. Then he looked back to her face as she spoke about... a power? He raised an eyebrow and stepped up onto the next step, listening in more closely. She looked back to him and explained what this ability did and his jaw dropped a little.

It took him a second to regain his composure, "that... sounds amazing," he paused, "but probably freaked you out. How did you even realize you had something like that?" he asked, shaking his head a little. As cool as it would be to suddenly realize he was special or something he didn't think he could handle the pressure of that. Adrian liked to keep things as lighthearted as possible.

Which was getting harder and harder these days.

maxima ruqayyah greyback

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

She wasn't sure if what she was seeing was shock or confusion on Adrian's face, but Max watched as the Gryffindor's jaw dropped. "That… sounds amazing," he finally spoke, "but probably freaked you out." It had done that. "How did you even realize you had something like that?"

"It's, uh… a long story," Max replied, "but I've known since the spring, around when you left, I guess." Really, it had been a matter of being in the right place at the right time, if she had to explain it. She wasn't sure how much she believed in fate, but maybe it was something like that.

"I was doing an assignment outside, and it was a bit rainy. Then I heard someone yelling for help, so I got up," as she hoped most people would have done in that position. "This first-year boy—second year now—he'd fallen somehow and he'd hurt his leg… Blood and all that." It could have been worse, but it had been pretty bad. "I didn't have any way of bandaging it—at least not properly—so I cut off some of the fabric from my robes to use that until we could get a nurse. So I went to wrap his leg, and I obviously had to lift it up to get the fabric underneath…" There had been nothing unusual about it, at least not until that point.

"And then it was like… It was like nothing had happened to him at all. Of course he thought I'd used some sort of spell… kept telling people what I'd done and how great it was… I thought that maybe I'd done it accidentally, like how people do magic when they haven't learnt to control it yet. But I've done it since then, too, so I know that can't be it."

@adrian