all night long

Iris sighed as she made her way to the kitchens. It was just another sleepless night and frankly, she was getting sick of it. She didn't feel like sleeping much days, afraid the kidnapping memories would come back. She wondered how Kait was doing back at Hogwarts and hoped it was better.

Pushing the door open, she looked around, in case there were any Professors and smirked to herself when she realized it was empty. Not wanting to scare the house elves, she gave a small smile and asked for coffee cake and sat down at one of the tables.

Something woke her up that night, and she couldn't force herself to go back to sleep. Hunger, the girl realized and frowned. "I shouldn't eat so late", a little voice in her head responded to her sudden craving, but she was so hungry that she really didn't care.

Tesla found her way to the kitchen, not even remembering who told her how to get there. There was a small figure already standing in there, among the funny little house elfs. From that angle, the girl kind of reminded Tesla of someone from Hogwarts, but no, it couldn't be, it would be too weird to happen.

The figure moved and turned more towards the newcomer.

Iris turned suddenly towards the door, her hand already reaching for her wand in her pocket. On closer inspection, she realized that the looked familiar. A little too familiar in fact. She relaxed slightly, but didn't move her hand away from her wand.

"Midnight cravings, I suppose?" She called out to the student with a smirk, not looking away even when the elf brought her cake.

Oh, she noticed how the girl was squeezing a wand in her pocket, but it didn't scare her at all. In fact, when she thought about it a few seconds later, she probably should have been scared cause she left her own wand on her night stand, but the figure looked too familiar to be scared of her.

"Grayson?", Tesla asked, listening to the girl's voice. "Is that you?"

Iris' eyes widened in surprise as the girl called out her name. Was that...? No, it couldn't be...could it? "Gordon? What the hell are you doing here?" She asked, before she could stop herself. She shook her head slightly and motioned her friend to come sit at the table.

She was silent for a few minutes, before saying, "It's been ages, how come you're in Durmstrang?"

She smiled at the perfect spontaneous Grayson. It felt so much like home, or at least, the last known home to her. She stepped closer to Iris.

"No need to yell, I'll explain, but you have to answer me first."

Iris raised an eyebrow at Tesla's comment. "Answer you first? Hm, interesting," she smirked. "And I'm not going to yell sweetheart, unless you've done something unacceptable of sorts...?" She looked suspiciously at her friend. She ate a piece of her cake and offered some to the girl.

"Alright, explain." Was all she said.

Tesla smiled with one of her 'imflashingyoumywhiteteeth' smiles and cheerfully continued. "No worries, I was perfectly innocent, I mean you met me before, you know how nice I am." Her face then turned into a completely serious one.

"Okay, so my question. Yeah, it's really simple."

The girl turned around, checking if the little elfs were eavesdropping or something, and when she concluded they weren't, she sat on the spot beside Iris and leaned towards her, whispering into her ear. "What were the chances of the two of us meeting here?"

She giggled cheerfully and continued. "Robb and I moved again, so I transferred here."

"You're perfectly innocent? Yeah sure, and I'm the queen of England," Iris scoffed and rolled her eyes good naturedly. "And from what I can remember, you were nicely bitchy," she gave a knowing smile. "Don't tell me that some time apart has softened you."

"I'd say that the chances were really less," she whispered back with a soft chuckle, looking directly at Gordan. "But then again, we can't really mess with fate, can we?"

"Oh, so you both moved here to Russia? How come?" She asked curiously. She felt sort of sad at this piece of information. Gordan was one her very few friends back at Hogwarts, even though the Uchitel was best friends with West.

"You know me too well Grayson", Tesla replied with a smile, as she put her hand over Iris' shoulder. It was nice being with someone that she, well, almost fell close to. She quite liked the girl, and to be honest, she was feeling lonely since she got here. "Well, you know, I always had a certain reputation. But, come to think of it, you had one too."

Then she did something she didn't do in a log time, Tesla actually giggled and kept going, acting just a bit more serious when replying to the question.

"Well, job, break up, change, it was needed, for his sanity, and for mine too. How bout you? What are you doing here?"

"Of course I know you well Gordon, we were friends once upon a time after all," Iris sighed and took some more of her cake. She stiffened slightly at the sudden contact, but chose to ignore it. She knew she'd have to get rid of this fear soon, and couldn't act like a coward.

She let out a laugh and grinned at the Uchitel. "I certainly remember the sort of reputation you had, but I don't recall having one. I'm sort of more heartless than I was before," she shrugged, not wanting to explain the reason yet. "Not that I was ever caring the first place," she smirked.

She looked amusedly at her friend's sudden giggle. "I think the insanity has already gotten to you," she remarked. "So how is Robb?" She asked. "Me? I'm here cause of the exchange program. I'll be going back to Hogwarts at the end of the year."

"We are still friend", Tesla corrected her and smiled warmly to make sure Grayson is aware of that. "I think we'll always be, cause you know, we're unique, and when in life you'll get a chance to meet someone like me? Never, and the same goes for me, you are kind of irreplaceable so..."

Tesla's face changed. "Let's not get carried away. I'm not nice, I really am not, but, yeah, I can't explain. And as for you, you were always the kinder one in this relationship." She noticed how something wasn't right with Iris, but boy, she was in no mood to discover what. It wasn't the moment to bother her friend, and remind her of stuff she clearly didn't want to talk to.

"He's mostly drinking these days, and I'm afraid that he's gonna lose his job. I mean, our parents are rich, don't get me wrong, so we're covered for the rest of our lives, but I hate it when he's miserable like that. I can't do anything."

"Good to know," Iris smiled back lightly. She chuckled and shook her head. "Well put Gordon, I completely agree. It is indeed quite a difficult task to find people like us. We're just too awesome for the world to handle," she winked. "You know, I just realized that I sort of missed you."

"I never said you were nice, you're not," she smirked. "I was kinder, but not anymore," she muttered. She knew that Tesla would be wondering about her vague responses and a part of her wanted to tell, but she didn't feel ready. Maybe in a while, she thought.

"I'm sorry to hear that," she told in a quiet voice. "What happened with you guys?"

"True that Grayson. This world is not ready for our awesomeness, but guess what? I think we're ruling it." Tesla said and looked away awkwardly. This started to feel like one of those nights for many confessions, tears, emotions and more awkwardness. She already hated it.

"Not anymore?" the girl asked, and then almost cursed and changed the topic. "Yeah, I'm sorry too. I never told this to anyone, but the reason to our misery is quite simple actually. Only one girl found about it before, but she never got details. I mean, Char doesn't even know."

The brown haired girl sighed and continued. "Maybe I should not keep it inside of me anymore. If I tell you this, it only means you got my whole trust, and I would like it to be the same for you. So, yeah, this is my story."

Of course we're ruling it. We are like, the epitome of awesomeness! It can be tiring you know," Iris grinned and shook her head. Sensing the awkwardness, she muttered, "Sorry, I'm not really good with feelings and shit."

"Yeah, not anymore because I realized some things, one of them being that kindness won't you get you anywhere," she stated. She raised an eyebrow at Tesla's comment. "Not even West, eh? Must be pretty big," she remarked with a smirk.

She looked at the Uchitel intently and said, "Listen here Gordon, if you want to talk to me about it, I'm all ears and I'm not going to blabber it around. If it'll make you feel better, then go ahead," she advised. "And maybe I'll tell you something...." she trailed off hesitantly.

She went quiet and listened to Iris talking. Her hair was really long now and she played with her shiny locks, trying not to look into her friend's eyes. Clearly they were both bad at these kinds of situations. Life can't prepare you for everything, obviously.

When the lighter haired girl finished, Tesla still didn't talk. She sighed once more, took a deep breath and looked at her hands.

"I know you wont tell anyone, and I do trust you." When she finished that sentence, she called on one of the elfs, and asked him for a bottle of rootbeer, and as she drank it, she became braver.

"So the story goes something like this. I was a kid, a happy kid, you know how innocent everyone is, when they are so young and naive. And growing up, I felt special and complete only when in company of my brother.
Not talking about Robb here. I'm talking about my other brother, the one probably no one knows I had, the one that got killed."

Iris almost smirked knowing that Tesla was just as bad as her when it came to spilling feelings. Clearly it was better that they kept it to themselves.

At first she didn't know how to react to her friend's confession. She was used to hearing stories like these from people and somehow, she didn't have any sympathy left in her. But she did sort of understand how the Uchitel might have been feeling.

"How did he die?" She asked. "And don't worry, I won't tell anyone, I promise."

For a moment, the girls shared a knowing look, and she felt closeness again, the same kind of connection that she shared with Char. Thinking about it, it made her warm inside to know how good friends she has. The hard, awkward situation became less painful because of it.

Tesla noticed how Iris paused and thought about her words for a moment, and she was glad that her friend was trying to be so thoughtful.

It stinged her a bit, but she had to continue now. "I know", she said slowly. "He was killed in a duel, and we still don't know the details. But it left great marks on me, on us all. We were a trio you know, a diabolical little trio, Robb, Kent and I. And then he wasn't there anymore, and we both were broken, too broken to be fixed. I kind of snapped out of the dark place, but he fell into it, and now I'm falling there again, trying to bring back the good in him."

Iris smiled sadly as she listened to Tesla's narration. Since she never had a family, she didn't know how she could relate to her friend. She wished she had known about Kait a little earlier, so she could have spent more time with her sister. But now, all she could hope for the safety of her sister back at Hogwarts.

"The golden trio thing sounds awesome," she murmured with a genuine smile. "You make me wish I had met him," she told and chuckled forcefully. "If you need any help, just let me know okay?" She sighed. "I know I'm not good with this shit, but still...." she trailed off and shrugged. "Is Robb doing any better?"

The expression on Grayson's face was priceless, real friendship was like that, caring and nurturing, and they both looked like they just want to help each other out. It was sweet, Tesla continued as her eyes widened.

"You would have loved him", she smiled at the fond memory of Kent. "Not only because he was out of this world hot, but because he was a good person, and fun to be with. The things we used to do together, and the way he spoiled me, I'm never forgetting a thing about him." The sad look was back on her face. "I still keep his stuff, you know? I can't seem to throw them out, I am attached to them as I was attached to him."

"You know, I'm not better with this either, but again, the same goes for you. You can trust me, I'm always gonna be there for you, even if I'm living in Russia." Her expression changed at the mention of her other brother's name. "He is not. He's doing worse, and I don't know why or how."

Iris was more than tempted to hug the Uchitel and show that she cares. But she couldn't. She was never the one to showcase her affection, except mostly with Hades. She had never heard someone talk so lovingly so about their family and made her wish even more that she had been loved like that. Sometimes life was unfair, and you had to deal with whatever was given. That's what she had learnt all these years.

"I'm really sorry Gordon," she told in a rarely used tone of genuineness. "I don't think he would have wanted you mourning for him like this. And wherever he is, he's probably feeling blessed to have had a sister like you," she said and patted her friend's shoulder awkwardly.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," she attempted a grin. "I just hope you don't regret saying that, cause I'm not exactly an easy baggage," she told and smiled humourlessly. "I'm going to miss you when I go to Hogwarts, though cause now I got no one to cause havoc with." She winked. "Maybe he should see a psychologist..?"