just an ordinary boy

The arena around the Hrabrost was bustling with people, but he barely noticed them. Instead, the newly turned sixteen year old's eyes were on one thing and one thing only.

The sky above.

It never failed to astound him how just beautiful it was. Though the day was clear, without a cloud in the sky, freshly fallen snow lay around him. The sky, a brilliant shade of pale blue, captivated his attenion, and not for the first time, he wondered what was out there.

They couldn't be alone. If there were humans here, why not be aliens on some distant planet? It made as much sense as anything. And after all, they were magical, surrounded by many creatures of magic. Would it really seem so strange to any of them that something else existed?

So caught up in his own thoughts, Afonka crashed into one of the many people around, "I am so sorry," he breathed, eyes wide. "So very sorry."

Adele had to escape. She couldn't be in the same room as the girl who had wished her brother's death. She had been away from home for two weeks, and now she was running out of money and resources. A part of her wanted to give in, to go back home and tell her family that indeed, she was okay. The inner Gryffindor, however, told her to keep going.

Comforting her was the blue sky, who blessed her by not raining, for once. All thirteen other days she had been on the run, it was either cloudy, or it snowed. Yesterday, it was so snowy it got her only coat wet. Either she had really bad timing, or she was just unlucky.

It was about time Adele actually rummaged through her purse to see all that she had left. There were two Galleons for another two days at that arse of a motel if she took the free tap water... and a Sickle. One. Bloody. Sickle. For food.

To hell with that. Adele didn't mind starving.

As she tried to contain her tears, she felt someone bump into her. She squealed, before turning around and dropping her purse; her hands formed a gun. "Don't. Move," she snapped, staring at the boy.

Afonka jumped, eyes wide. He'd expected her to talk, of course he had, but the way he was being looked at...

He took a step back, then when he realized that he'd just done the opposite of what she'd said, he let out a little squeak of terror, shuffling back to where he'd been.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, eyes flicking down to her hands that resembled guns, confusion written all over his face. Was she going to shoot him? But she couldn't. She couldn't shoot someone with just her fingers.

But still, the fear wormed its way back onto his face. "So, so sorry."

Adele squealed once more when the boy moved, her eyes turning from plain shock to obsessive apprehension. "You better be sorry, boy!" She shook her head, glancing down at her fingers, "This is a lethal Glock... old model... point nine calibre... it's a true beauty."

She frowned at her gun of sorts, before surrendering and putting her arms down by her sides. "I-I can't do this!" she exclaimed, looking up at the sky as if it held all her answers, "I'm not Haze! I don't go around wishing for people to die... or killing them... o-or anything like that..."

The Gryffindor looked back down at the boy, and flung her arms around him. She rested her head on his shoulders, clutching him towards her, "I'm so sorry! I'm sorry for holding you at gunpoint! I'm a bad girl! I ran away! I ran awaaaay..."

But - But - He was so confused. They were just fingers. And well, he didn't know all that much about guns, but he was pretty sure that wasn't a Glock.

Afonka blinked, startled by her sudden outburst. Confusion spreading across his face, he tilted his head. "Haze? As in Hazelle? Hazelle Bass? You know her?" And what did she have to do with any of this?

He stared down at the girl who's arms were suddenly around him. Patting her awkwardly on the back, "I - It's alright. Really. I'm fine, so that's a good thing, right?" He nodded, laughing nervously. "Well, you must've run away for a good reason, right?"

Adele shrieked as soon as Haze was inevitably mentioned, "She's my stupid bitch of a sister!" She leaned into his ear, sniffling, "Do you know that she wished for my brother to die? And then he did die! Now there's just... twins, not triplets!"

She was patted on the back, and the Gryffindor let him go rather abruptly before rubbing her eyes. "Good," she muttered, "I would never want to kill you." She swallowed, "I ran away because I didn't want to die. She might curse me like the way she cursed Kaycee." She stuck out her tongue, "Well, she's never going to kill me! Never! She's going to send the Pineapple Army out to kill me, but they're not going to catch me!" She giggled at the thought, mentally prancing around as she bobbed her head from side to side.

Oh, so that was how Hazelle came into this. Nodding slowly, he blinked rapidly at the girl's statement, his lips trembling. She'd wished for someone's death? And then it'd happened? But hadn't he done that? He wanted Feliks to die, and now the prefect had practically vanished off the face of the earth.

"That - That's terrible," Afonka finally choked out, staring at the brunette.

His eyes widened, his jaw slacking as well. He didn't think - well, it was true that he honestly didn't know Hazelle that well, but he didn't think she'd intentionally killed her triplet or kill her twin. And he told her so.

"The Pineapple Army?" he repeated, tilting his head in confusion, "An army of pineapples? That sounds...tasty."

"Terrible?" cried the Gryffindor, "a third of me is dead and all you can say is terrible?" She jumped, her feet aiming for the boy's foot as they hit the ground. "It is monstrous! Devilish! Impossible! It proves to the wooooooooorld," Adele began to sing, "Hazelle Bass is nothing more than a selfish bitch, a cunt, a spawn of the deviiiiiiiiiiiil..."

The world seemed to lay their eyes on her, but the Gryffindor merely scowled. She was too busy listening to this boy, who told her that Hazelle didn't mean to kill anyone. "She didn't?" cried the brunette, "she didn't, now did she? She didn't mean for me to lose one third of my family. She didn't want me to go insane? She didn't want me to be below her?"

Adele merely growled at the boy after that, "You're so useless. You're no help at all. One day, The Pineapple Army will kill you."

"I don't know what to say!" Afonka shook his head rapidly, stepping away from the girl. "I don't know what it's like to lose a part of you. The only person I've ever lost was a friend. A - And she was a great friend and I still miss her everyday, and you know how it was to me? It was terrible, and I know that whatever you're going through has to be a billion times worse, but I don't know what else to say!"

He bit at his bottom lip, closing his eyes for a moment as her listened to her words.

"But she lost a third of her family too, didn't she?" he pointed out, blinking his eyes open. "Maybe she's hurting just as much as you are, but you're so busy hating her that you don't realize."

Shaking his head slightly, he shrugged, still having no idea what or who this Pineapple Army was, "Um, alright."