The telltale heart

[Cole Gladwyn]

It had taken hours for Cole to finally calm himself. It had been such a minor situation that it was unlikely that anyone else had noticed. It wasn’t as if other people could feel his heart racing in his chest…or see the way his hands shook as he bolted from the library. Henry probably couldn’t tell either, right? For a short moment it felt like the two of them had been frozen in time. Cole would’ve given anything for moments like that to happen regularly. To touch, to talk, to spend all of his hours with his fellow Ravenclaw would be exquisite.

The shorter boy sat in his room staring at the toes of his shoes for far too long. He was supposed to meet Harry in the dungeons for the rest of the project soon. Unfortunately, his shock had kept him from studying at all. He would be next to useless sitting in the dungeons with Harry. At least the taller of the two boys was beyond talented with potions and would probably do fine on his own; but Cole hated pushing most of the work off on his friend. It was rude, it was lazy, and above everything else it left him having to explain why he hadn’t been able to study. That would be very difficult.

Finally finding the courage, Cole kicked his feet out and over the side of the bed. He had to find some way to get over this and face his friend like he always did. It wasn’t as if they had never been alone in a room together. In fact, they had been mostly undressed in a room together. It was a burden that Cole had done his best to ignore—sleeping in the same dorm as the boy he felt so strongly for... In those moments when he found it hard not to stare he always came up with some excuse… what could he come up with tonight?

He hurried down the tower steps, heavy book bag swinging awkwardly as it smacked against his thigh. It was time to get over this. It was time to do something. Cole slowed significantly as he approached the entry to the room in which he knew he’d be meeting Harry. Blue gray eyes closed with a heavy sigh. Steadying himself, Cole passed through the threshold and into the room, immediately setting down his book bag and pulling out an array of books. He didn’t even look up to see if Harry had already arrived… This was going to be a long night.

A very long night…
@Henry Berkwood

  

[Henry Berkwood]

Henry was a coward. A complete and utter coward. He seriously considered just not going. Hang his grade. How much would it really suffer if he missed one assignment? He was hardly in danger of failing as it was. If he just didn't go, he could avoid all the awkwardness that was bound to happen the moment he stepped foot in the dungeons. Because Henry was overthinking this. He kept telling himself to just let it go, to forget about it--he wasimagining things, dangerous thing, and it was far better to potentilally fail something than it was to put himself in a situation where he had little other choice except to entertain those thoughts.

As the boy made his way to the dungeons, he told himself firmly that whatever it was he'd thought happened in the library, it was nothing. Cole hadn't lingered over his hand like one might linger while touching their lover. That was just the overly fanciful thought process Henry had allowed himself to get tangled up in. Because he was a sad and pathetic boy who didn't use any of the common sense he was apparently born with. He was running late at the moment because he'd spent an extra ten minutes in the loo, banging his head against the wall. He would have done it in the dormitory, but, you know, Cole might have been there.

He was just going to act as though nothing had happened. That was Henry's plan. Act like nothing had happened, because it wasn't like there was anything he could really say, was there? If it was all in his mind, than he would have made a terrible, terrible mistake even opening his mouth. If it wasn't... Well, the boy hadn't actually allowed himself to think that far ahead, to be quite honest.

The door might have opened with slightly more force than Henry meant it to as he entered the room. He didn't really slam it--there was no loud bang or anything like that--but there was definitely some flinging happening. When in doubt, over-compensate like crazy. "Good! You're here already!" Henry said, his voice an octave or two too high before he forced himself to bring it back to normal. "Let's start."