a cure for the weight of the world

He - he had to have read the letter at least a million times.

But it still didn't make any sense.

Well, it made sense, the Hrabrost just didn't want to believe it.

He hadn't even - he'd never heard of his grandparents before. OK, he knew he had grandparents, as most people did, but he'd never - they'd never been a part of his life.

And now they just thought they could show up and boss him around? Swallowing the surge of anger, he laid down the letter, the ink staring back at him.

The mafia. The mafia. They - they wanted him in the mafia. And - well, they hadn't given him much of a choice, had they?

You can't run away from us. Not if you treasure the lives of your family.

No choice. None at all.

B - but how? How did you join the mafia? Hands shaking, Afonka repocketed the letter. Staring down at his coffee, he sighed, lost in his own thoughts.

Paloma clenched her jaw as she grabbed her coffee and searched for a place to sit. She glared at the Potions textbook on her other hand, sighing and wondering how the hell she would learn the subject so fast. It wasn't fair to force her into something she hated.

Looking around, she spotted a nearly-empty table, with just one boy sitting there. The Uchitel walked over and bit her lips, "Excuse me, would you mind if I sat here?" Recognizing the boy, her lips turned themselves up into a smile, "Oh, hello Afonka."

Sipping his coffee, Afonka kept his head down, too caught up in just how he was going to execute his grandparents' plan to focus on the people around him. Jumping slightly at the vaguely familiar female voice, he glanced up, shaking his head. Company was good. It got his mind off of the letter that felt like it was burning a hole in his pocket.

"Hey Paloma. I don't mind. Not at all." Inclining his head towards the seat across from him, he smiled up at her, "Sit."

Paloma smiled at the Hrabrost and took a seat across from him, putting her textbook and coffee on the table. "I wasn't interrupting anything?" she asked, frowning a bit, because the boy had seemed to be so deep in thought.

She took a sip of her coffee and turned back to the boy- it would be rude to ignore him and study, even if they did not know each other very well, so she pushed her textbook aside and decided to make small talk. She would study later. It wasn't like she wanted to, anyway.

"How's Durmstrang?" she asked.

"No, nothing." he said a little too quickly, shaking his head. Talking to Paloma - or anyone, for that matter - was better than sitting here and wallowing in his own self-pity.

Hesitating slightly, he shrugged. With Phille dead and Tess suicidal, Durmstrang wasn't really all that great for him. But he guessed that in the grand scheme it wasn't too bad. "It's alright." Smiling slightly, he added, "I actually thought you disappeared when I didn't see you around all year. But then I realized that you probably went to Hogwarts."

Pausing for a moment, he asked, "You are at Hogwarts, right?"

Paloma frowned a bit at the boy's quick response, but said nothing and took a sip of her coffee. She pushed it away and wrinkled her nose when the substance touched her lips. Too hot.

She smiled genuinely at the boy, thinking it was nice that he noticed her absence. She hadn't been particularly close to many people and never had been popular at Durmstrang, so she just assumed people wouldn't have noticed she was gone. She shook her head and kept a straight face, "Actually, I'm not. I was abducted by aliens." Paloma looked at the Hrabrost and laughed, "Yes, I am. Why didn't you transfer as well?"

Returning Paloma's smile, Afonka straightened up in his chair attentively. Eyes widening and his mouth falling open as she confessed to being abducted by aliens, he glanced upwards towards the ceiling, "I always knew they were up to no good." Shaking his head slightly, he glanced back at the blonde, "Were they nice?" he asked curiously.

Realizing that she was joking, he blushed, taking a sip of his coffee as his cheeks flamed up. "I would've missed everyone if I'd transferred."

Paloma laughed a bit at the boy, thinking he was joking as well, and shook her head, "Not really. Plus, their food is terrible." When she realized that he thought she was being serious, she looked down, ashamed of having laughed at the boy. "Do you believe in them?" she asked curiously, "Aliens?"

The Uchitel nodded, "I do miss everyone, but it's been a wonderful experience."

"Homemade food is always the best," Afonka nodded, smiling along with Paloma. Tilting his head ever so slightly as he watched her look down, his brow furrowed slightly. Had he said something? Twiddling his thumbs, he looked up at her, nodding before glancing back up at the ceiling, "I think there's something else out there. If there's magic, why not aliens?" Shrugging, Afonka smiled as he looked back at her.

"What's it like there?"

Paloma thought about it and nodded, "It does make sense. We can't possibly be the only planet with life in it."

"It's. . . " she sighed as she tried to describe Hogwarts, there were just no words for it. Just like there were no words to describe Durmstrang and, possibly, Beauxbatons. It was just like that with magic schools. "It's wonderful. I mean, the castle is huge and breathtaking, it's everything people say it is. The professors, most of them aren't as dark as the ones in Durmstrang. The outside is also beautiful and there's this really big 'forbidden' forest, which is also amazing."

"I just wish I could've enjoyed it more," she muttered, more to herself.

"I wonder what they're like," Afonka mused. "I hope they're friendly. Because if they're not..." he trailed off, shuddering slightly. If aliens decided to attack, he wasn't sure that magic could save them.

"That sounds amazing," Afonka breathed, his eyes wide in awe. In his mind's eye, he began to imagine just what Hogwarts looked like. "Wait," he paused, brow furrowing, "Durmstrang's professors are dark?" He didn't think any of their professors were dark. It wasn't like they were evil. Taking a sip of his coffee, he grinned, "Why's the forest forbidden?"

Tilting his head, he asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Oh, definitely," Paloma agreed with a sigh, "We do not need another war."

She grinned, "It is- and I wouldn't say they're completely dark, just, you know, a bit. . ." She shrugged and continued, "At least in my opinion, anyway. They're harsher, a couple of them have been known to have done not exactly 'nice' things in the past, a lot have connections to the Mafia. . . I mean, most aren't evil, but I would consider them a bit dark, yes."

"Lot's of 'dangerous' creatures there," she explained, "But most just come out at night, so it's pretty safe to wander only a bit into in during the day."

Realizing that she had spoken loud enough for him to hear, she tried to explain. "Well- Just that I've been studying pretty much the whole year," Paloma said, sighing, "Because of my parents and all." She really should have enjoyed it more, now that it was nearly over.

"We don't," Afonka agreed, suppressing a shudder, "war is just evil. Nothing good ever comes from it."

Nodding along with her words, as soon as she mentioned the Mafia, the Hrabrost froze up, the letter in pocket suddenly feeling like it weighed a million pounds. There - their own professors were involved with the mafia. What if they were planning to do things to them? After all, there were so many students at Durmstrang, and weren't they supposed to trust their teachers? If they were planning something, why not attack them? "The - the mafia?" he squeaked out, panic shining in his eyes. "There are mafia members at Durmstrang?"

Nodding, he asked, "Find anything cool there?"

Giving her a little nod, Afonka smiled, "I know what that's like."

"I still don't get why people start them," Paloma mused, "All they do is end lives."

She watched the boy carefully when he started to seem panicky and wondered if she had said something wrong. "Rumours of it, yes," she nodded, "It's likely, a couple of students think so. And the, uh, t-the Ministry... they suspect as well." She said the last part in a whisper, not sure if she should be giving out that information. The girl had overheard her parents talking late one night about the Mafia, how it was gaining power and all that. Realizing only then that the boy could've been panicking because of the Mafia, she tried to calm him down. "It's not like they'd do anything to us, though," she noted, "Not with Professor Rusnak around."

"I've only been there two times, during the day," she told him, shaking her head, "And those two times, the coolest thing I found was a rabbit."

Paloma couldn't help but give a sympathetic smile at the boy, "You have parents who pressure you as well?"

"I guess some people like doing that." Afonka sighed, taking a sip of his coffee. "Monsters." he muttered into his mug, frowning slightly.

Rumours of the mafia at their school....shivering, he placed his mug against the table softly. If the ministry thought that, well then wasn't it true? Suddenly finding himself with a lot more appreciation of their highmaster, he smiled slightly, "Well, then - then that's good, right?"

Twiddling his thumbs, he shook his head, "Not my parents. My grandparents."

"Killing people is not a fun sport," Paloma agreed and looked at her mug of coffee, wondering if it had cooled down. She tentatively took a sip and, after realizing it had not burned her lips, took another one.

She nodded and placed the mug back on the table, fixing the beret on her head. "He is one of the best wizards alive," she told him.

"Oh," the Uchitel said, suddenly thinking back to her own grandparents, from both sides of the family. It had been a while since she'd seen them, and she wondered how they were doing. She shook her head and blinked, reminding herself to not let her thoughts grab her attention, and kept her focus on Afonka. "But, do your parents agree with them?" the girl asked with a frown, for once in her life not stopping to think if she was being too nosy.

"Not at all." Afonka muttered, eyes flicking from her to the table in between them, a tiny little sigh emitting from his lips.

"He really is amazing," he smiled. Highmaster Rusnak was a pretty great teacher and rather approachable. He could probably tell the man anything.

Shaking his head, his expression cleared into one of relief. "Merlin no. If they did, I don't know what I'd do. My grandparents, they're sort of demanding."

"Why don't you ask your parents to talk to them?" Paloma frowned and suggested, trying to help the boy. Demanding parents, grandparents, whatever, were terrible. She took another sip of her coffee and tried to think of anything else, "I mean, your grandparents aren't your parents. And since you said your parents don't agree with them, maybe they can talk your grandparents into not demanding so much of you. . .?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. I haven't really had any success with any of it, so maybe you shouldn't take my advice."

"Well, I guess I could try that." Afonka said softly, smiling at Paloma. But it wouldn't work. He couldn't exactly ask - or beg, really - his parents to talk them out of forcing him into the mafia. Their minds were set. Nothing could stop them.

But there was no way he could tell that to Paloma. They barely knew each other and besides, he didn't want to worry her. "Nah, I'll take it," he lied, feeling absolutely terrible. "What's the worst than can happen?"

"Exactly," Paloma nodded and bit her lips. Perhaps she should take her own advice, and talk to her parents as well. She'd tried twice before and it hadn't worked, but - "What's the worst that can happen?" she muttered, more to herself than to Afonka.

She took another sip of her coffee and tugged at the sleeves of her gray sweatshirt, feeling a bit awkward with the silence. Both seemed to be thinking about their own problems.

Humming softly, Afonka glanced around the cafe, thoughts a million miles away. He was terrified, it finally occurred to him, of his own family. Frowning at that thought, he glanced down at coffee, watching the steam rise up from it.

They were family, right? So they were supposed to care, not treat him like some sort of tool for their own use. But that was exactly what his grandparents were doing, and nothing was going to stop them. Shaking his head to dislodge the negative thoughts, he looked over at Paloma. "Do you have any plans for the summer?" he asked, breaking the silence between them.

Paloma's head snapped up when the boy asked her a question, not aware of how much time they had spent in silence, too lost in her thoughts. She shook her head, "Not that I know of. My parents might have planned something, but I don't know. I'll probably just... go back to Germany, maybe spend a week or two in England with my sister..."

"What about you?"

"Ooh, Germany." Afonka's eyes widened, the topic of summer taking his mind off all his problems. "I've never actually been there before. What's it like? And England too? Actually, the only place other than Russia I've been in is Azorat." Frowning slightly, he shook his head.

"Um, I don't know. I'll probably go home, spend time with my little sister," And go to wherever the mafia headquarters are. "I might take a trip to Azorat, who knows?"