You Are My Light (Aoife)

Phin had been bored, and thinking of nothing in particular. It was one of those days when even doing homework seemed like the most absurd thing. He didn't feel like going to the Quidditch pitch to try and break his neck, or to the common room where the atmosphere seemed the most safe. So, Because he didn't know where to go, or where to find anyone, he decided that wandering would be the most obvious choice to do at that moment. Phin had grown quiet a lot over the summer and throughout the year. His uncle had teased him about puberty finally catching up with him. His voice was beginning to sound less squeaky, and his belly was becoming slimmer. The only thing that seemed to be getting worse, was his teeth. They where huge to begin with, but with his face growing longer, his teeth bucked out in the most unfortunate way.

Phin was now in his third year, and Aoife her fifth. And because fifth year seemed to be the most important year, Phin let her be to focus more on her studies. He missed the now thankfully red head, and would give anything just to have a decent conversation  with her. But because their classes where divided up weirdly this term, and with her studying, Phin hardly had a chance to speak to her. And when she didn't stay for Christmas, the empty whole in his chest became deeper. It wasn't the fact that he was still in love with her, no, he was way past that. It was merely the fact that he enjoyed her company, and she was well, his best friend. With out his best friend, his world seemed like this dark and gloomy abyss that never ended. He was trapped, and needed to find his way out. And the only way out was her. She brought the light to his gloomy world.

Phin sighed as he sat down on a rock near a tree. He put both hands on his knees and sighed again. This was pathetic. Phin really needed to get out more and enjoy life. He needed to find some other cure to his dark and gloomy world. Things should've started to get better after he began living with chad. Before, he didn't know how things could get worse. But now, he figured, that without her, life wasn't the same without her. He was an empty shell of a boy who used to be so full of life and light. But now, darkness seemed to follow him where ever he went. And he was hoping he could find somebody to fill that gap of loneliness. He was done, but at the same time, there wasn't anybody else who could light up his dark abyss but her.

Aoife was done with that OWLs shit. After all that studying (mainly the night before the exams started, admittedly) and eight unbelievably stressful exams, there was absolutely no pressure or stress anymore. All over. Well, until NEWTs at least. But she didn’t need to worry about those - because this was that nice relaxation period where she could catch up on all the sleep she lost staying up hours for late night, early morning studying. Around the time of the exams, she hadn’t really talked to anyone much. It might have just been fate. It was probably that she was in the Gryffindor common room more than she was in the kitchens nowadays. And that meant she hadn’t really talked to Phin much. But Phin hadn’t seemed to come and look for her. Which made her think he either didn’t like her anymore or had made new friends to replace her. That would be fair enough - she’d been a terrible best friend recently.

Today she wasn’t working, and suddenly she didn’t feel obliged to study like a bloody Ravenclaw, so she felt a little bit indecisive about where to go and what to do. In the end she wandered down to the kitchens, grabbed herself a sandwich and some cookies from the house elves and then headed outside to the grounds. It was sunny, and bright, and nice, because it was almost summer! Summer was the best time of year, partly because the weather made it completely reasonable to be outside every single minute of her free time and also because for a lot of it she was at home with her sheep. Only a little bit left of term! Wonderful! There was always the downside of having to put up with her brothers and sisters for six whole weeks, but it was worth it for the sheep and stuff.

She was too lost in her happy thoughts of home to even notice where she was going, let alone realise who was a couple of feet away from her. When she did finally regain actual consciousness, Aoife squealed in delight. “Phineas Button!” she exclaimed, and took a seat on the ground next to him. “Wow, you’ve changed, you little git!” Suddenly he was a lot less chubby and he looked a lot taller. When was the last time she’d seen him?! “Here you go, have a cookie,” she added, throwing one towards his head carelessly and starting to eat her sandwich. “Nutella sandwich.” That was why she was eating instead of talking non-stop to Phin.

Phin was so distracted, that he almost didn't notice a mop of red hair come and sit next to him. He jumped out of his skin because she scared him so bad. That must be the Hufflepuff coming out in him. He laughed when she said that he had changed. And instantly, his seemingly dark world began to shed some light. He smiled for the first time in weeks. He said, "Ya... I grew a little bit." She then offered him a cookie, like him going through the Terrible pains of puberty where worth it.

He took the cookie willingly and ate it in two bites. He wasn't even sure what kind they where, but he was positive they came from the kitchens. Aoife would've been far to lazy to make them herself. He knew her that well. This was exactly like old times. Them sitting, just talking about nothing, and eating cookies. They always seemed to be involved. But that was ok. He wasn't complaining. Cookies where fantastic. He was just glad they weren't pizza rolls.

Phin asked, " where have you been? I've barley seen you all term!"

There. That should hide the fact that he hadn't really been looking for her. He did make a Mes of things the last time they spoke... Or well, when he locked them in a closet. He wondered about that, but then decided against asking because she might inflict violence on him. And he was a pacifist. Except for that one time when he hit her back on accident.

But she hit him first, so that was her fault. He then just spat it out because he wanted to know. He asked, "how are you and what's his face?" He didn't want to make it too obvious that he was asking about Hunter. Sure, he hated the guy, as he was probably closer to his best friend right now than Phin was, but he did keep his secret. And that was something he could never forget.