All of Me (Aoife)

Phin had had a rough couple of weeks. Even though Hunter had confirmed that she would come around (he had been through the same thing), he was still ashamed at what he did. He could barley look at himself in the mirror, or anybody else because he was afraid that they knew something, even though Hunter swore he and Aoife hadn't told anybody. He decided that he needed to get away. Like really bad. So, he went to the clock tower to be alone.

He sat down and listened as the clock chimed every hour. Questions ran through his mind... Some that didn't even relate to the current situation. What was he going to do with his life? Who was he now? What had he become? What was for lunch today? His mind wouldn't stop racing. At the moment, he just wanted to scream and yell and hit some stuff, but he didn't want to attracted attention to himself. He feared that SHE would find him.

And as he sat down and got out a piece of parchment to attempt to write a potions essay, his worst nightmare had come true. There she stood, blue hair and all. And all the feelings that he had been trying to push away came rushing back. He wanted to get back to the way they were before. But sadly, he knew that wouldn't happen.

Aoife had always hated the sound of clocks ticking. It was so annoying. And boring. Tick tock, tick tock. So regular, routine and stupidly tedious and dull. But she did like the clock tower. It had adventures and when she went there, she usually found something interesting to do. In her first year, she had found Evan setting fire to flowers and Lyrica about to faint from all that smoke. Since then, she’d… well, she hadn’t been there. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t find something to do. So she grabbed her bag, packed some homework to do and headed outside.

Quickly, she ran up the stairs of the tower, jumping over every other step. Then she got to the spot where she had intended to study and saw someone was already there. Phin. Typical. She always seemed to run into the people she were trying to avoid. This time, though, she had plans to make friends with him again, so this was alright. For a moment she hesitated where she stood, but her TFIOS sweater drove her forward and gave her courage. It was so awesome.

“Hey Phin,” she said as she walked across the room and sat crossed-legged on the floor. Aoife pulled out her Astronomy book to read a chapter of for homework. “I’m sorry, kid.” She didn’t even have anything to apologise for, how nice was she? Maybe she had been a little quick to judge Phin and she hadn’t listened properly.

SHE was sorry? She didn't really do anything. He was the one who was supposed to apologize. But why did that matter? He had already lost her as a friend. Which sucked, because he didn't have many friends. Or any at all. That was probably why they became friends in the first place, because they both didn't have friends.

He just shrugged in response to her apology. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with anything. He had gotten a letter from his mother saying that she was sorry about what happened between him and his dad, but didn't receive anything from him. She was also begging him to come home for Christmas, but that didn't seem likely.

He didn't want to get into another fist fight with him. He tried to make it look like he was REALLY trying to concentrate on his essay, but in reality, he was doing shit. He hoped she would get the hint.

Aoife didn’t know how to deal with mopey, sad, moody Phin. He was so unlike the happy, bubbly, feisty Phin that she had grown to love over the past few months. Love in a best friend sort of way. Obviously. Was this huge contrast in personality the same sort of thing that other people had seen in her after the Hunter thing? It didn’t make her feel so angry or sad as much as confused. He was just being so WEIRD. Well, weirder than he usually was, in a bad way, not a good unique way like her hair.

“What homework are you doing?” she asked cheerfully, trying to start some real conversation. The tension here was just stupid. “I mean, if it’s Potions, I can’t help at all, but if it’s Care of Magical Creatures or DADA something I might!” She was terrible at brewing stupid solutions but was great with animals and obviously had always been Professor Malfoy’s ultimate favourite student in the past. PotatoGirl.

Maybe she should talk to him properly, now that she knew about how things were for him at home. It was horrible, she never would have guessed it before. It actually made sense that he had hit her back and got so angry and all. “Uh… Hunter told me about… you know, home.” Her face was bright red. Aoife couldn’t do deep conversations or comforting remarks. It was just so awkward and uncomfortable, especially when the situation was like this. Unimaginable. "I'm sorry if you didn't want him to," she added quickly, a little worried that he would be angry.

Phin wasn't actually sure what he was working on. It had started out as a potions essay, but was quickly becoming another essay he was supposed to do. Stupid essays. But then, realization hit him. He wasn't mad at her. He was mad at his father, and he was just taking it out on her, because he wasn't here to take it out no him.

It probably wouldn't make since if he said it out loud, but it did in his head. Then, she said that Hunter had told her about his home life. Some how, he knew deep down that he would've. Asking him to keep it a secret was stupid. Especially since they had just became friends again. They probably wouldn't be keeping secrets anymore.

Phin shrugged and said, "It's alright I guess. I might move in with my Uncle during the summer, and stay here during Christmas."

He couldn't go to his Uncle's for Christmas because his Uncle just stayed here! It would be lonely, but at least he would be away from home. And just like that, it was like everything that had happened between them had disappeared. He hadn't tried to kiss her, and he didn't slap her. He added, "I'm sorry about...What I did. I didn't mean to do it. Both things."

He would just be friends with her and he accepted that now. His emotions between the two of them where just all him.

Phin didn’t answer her homework so the conversation moved straight to the serious stuff about why Phin was so unfortunately miserable. Aoife just wanted to go and give him a big huge hug. Hugs were the best, they made everything better, even if only slightly. But she felt that now wasn’t the time for a hug with Phin. Later. When they were back to best friend status, he would be getting a hug.

Ah, that was so sweet that he didn’t mind that Hunter had just ignored him and gone straight ahead to tell her exactly what he had said in confidence. The bluehead was bound to find out at some point anyway and she was glad it was sooner rather than later, so she could really understand what he was going through and be especially nice to him now that she knew the situation.

“You have an uncle?” she asked curiously. “That’s great! That you have someone to spend the holidays with! Is he nice?” Aoife smiled, really genuinely happy for him.

Then she got that apology and she grinned widely. “Thank you,” she said gently. “I know you didn’t mean it. Heat of the moment and all that. I react violently, too.” She laughed a bit weakly. If anything happened that she wasn’t expecting or found negative, she threw chairs or hit people or whatever. It was a fault because she often regretted it after the heat of the moment had faded. Now was the time for Phinny’s hug. Without hesitation, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him in a bone-crushing hug.

And at that moment, after he apologized, he received. She asked about his Uncle... Was he nice? Nice wasn't a good word to describe Uncle Chad... How about sarcastic ass? There we go! Sarcastic ass.

So he said, "He's kind of nice in his own way. He's a sarcastic ass. He has a place in Hogsmeade that he stays in over the summer. So I won't be far from Hogwarts!"

He smiled at the thought. Hogwarts truly was his home. Uncle Chad had said that he'd be writing to his parents today saying that he was going to take him in. That was quiet a relief. He didn't have to worry about going back home.

He smiled when she said that she reacted violently to those kinds of situations. He replied, "And that is what makes us best friends. We have so much in common."

He was glad things where going to be getting back to normal between the two of them. But, he only had one more situation to deal with and his life would be better. Hunter... What could he do to make his life miserable to get back at him for sharing his secret? Sure he had SAID he wasn't mad. But in all reality, he was majorly pissed. And a pissed Phin, was not one you wanted to mess with.

Well, Aoife wouldn’t regard a sarcastic ass as nice, but she would take Phin’s word for it. She didn’t like really sarcastic people because she could hardly ever understand the sarcasm and whether the person was being genuine or not. Someone could probably be sarcastic but friendly and nice enough, though, so she should stop overthinking this and accept that Phin’s uncle was nice enough. It had nothing to do with her anyway.

“Just over the summer?” she asked, a little confusedly. “Why? Is he really rich? Does he have a huge mansion and just live in Hogsmeade on holidays in his special summer house?” She was getting a little bit carried away now but if Phin had a really rich uncle, it would be great for him! He could have loads of stuff and a great place to live!

So much in common? She tried not to look doubtful about what he had said. “I guess…” True, they reacted violently and had a fair bit of courage between them, but other than that Aoife felt they were very different. The main reason being he was a small chubby Hufflepuff boy and she was a blueheaded Gryffindor freak. If she thought about it, they were both freaks. Or perceived as freaks by other people. As far as she knew, Phin didn’t have too many other friends so people must have something against him. And her only friends were Phin and Victoria. It was probably because they were both seen as freaks that they were friends. She didn’t say that, though.

Phin wasn't sure what to tell her. He didn't want to tell her that the muggle studies teacher was his uncle. How embarrassing would that be? But he figured that his uncle would try and embarrass him as much as possible while he was here, so it wouldn't make any difference.

He had eaten lunch with him a few times because he didn't feel like eating in the great hall due to the possibility of facing her after everything had happened. But his uncle had given him some really good advice on how to handle the situation and he was really good at "getting the ladies" as he put it, so he thought he should listen to him.

He decided to tell her about him. He replied, "he's the muggle studies teacher here."

He awaited her reaction.

There was a bit of an awkward pause but Aoife didn't say anything to break the silence because she wanted the answer to her question.

It wasn't quite what she had expected. He wasn't rich - well, maybe he was - or anything, he was a professor here. "That is SO cool, Phin!" she beamed. Having an uncle as a professor, that must be the coolest thing in the world, even if he was mean and sarcastic like she seemed to gather from Phin's account. Unfortunately, all of her relatives were muggles, so she had no hope that anything like that would happen to her, unless she had some secret family that she didn't know about. She would have to quiz her mother on that.

"Uh... why haven't we had any Muggle Studies lessons yet?" she asked. If anyone would know, it was her best friend. Aoife was eager to meet this man. And she was certain that she would excel in this subject. Muggle Studies! She knew everything there was to know about muggles, practically being one! She would get top marks and not even have to listen! Sleeping in class would be fine because they wouldn't be learning anything that she didn't already know!

Phin laughed. It was the first time he had laughed in a while, and it felt good. He said, "He probably doesn't even know term has started! I've told him several times, but he doesn't listen very well! I'm not even sure why he still has a job!"

Phin laughed again. Oh, it felt so good to laugh. And that made him laugh even harder. Now he probably just looked like an idiot. But what ever. It just felt good to be happy again. He didn't want to be miserable anymore.

"Oh, okay! He sounds so fun! I can't wait to meet him if he ever remembers!" Suddenly Phin was laughing manically. And it was infectious - Aoife couldn't hold it in for long and was soon in fits of laughter along with him, her head thrown back as she laughed for no real reason. Phin's uncle was a reason, she supposed, but not a good enough reason for this madness.

Then she caught a glimpse of her watch and was surprised to see the time. "Phin! We have to go!" she said hurriedly. "It's dinnertime! We can't miss FOOD!" What a terrible tragedy it would be if they did! She grabbed his arm and pulled him up to leave.