3 Chapter Three - Like Sleep To The Freezing

"-allow."

...

"-r Wallow."

...

"Mr Wallow?!"

...

"For goodness sake, Silias Wallow wake up this instant."

The sleeping boy was rudely awakened by a voice both pleasant and graining on the ears. The boy's eyes fluttered open and he took stock of his situation.

"Ah. Sorry Minerva, it seems I dozed off."

Silias replies with a groggy, monotonous voice. Minerva's eyes widened in surprise.

"What... did you just call me?"

The older witch asked tersely, the whole class flinched at the very obvious anger present in her tone.

"Oh. Did I get it wrong? Is your name not Minerva?"

Silias replied, he could've sworn that's what the bin-bag-man called her. Minerva looked completely gobsmacked. Silias looked confused.

"You'd do well to remember your place Mr Wallow, and should you ever call me so casually again, I can assure you that you will spend the rest of the year in detention."

She seemed quite peeved, Silias didn't really get it. But figured it was best to just stay quiet and nod to the angry Scottish witch.

"10 points from Ravenclaw for calling a teacher by their first name. And another 10 points for falling asleep during the lecture on transfiguration safety."

Her cheeks were tinted red with anger. Silias nodded and looked uninterestedly at the chalkboard that seemed to be writing safety rules by itself. He really couldn't be bothered, the chalkboard was slightly too far away and in order to read it he would have to exert a bit of effort.

'I'm still glad I chose a seat at the back, at least I got some sleep'

The class continued as planned, they spent two hours going over the do's and don't's transfiguration. The gist of it was; don't be an idiot. For the most part Silias ignored the lecture and tried to think of creative ways to sleep without being caught. He didn't really need to be told not to try and turn a table into a sentient human, he liked to think he possessed a smidge of common sense.

The bell tolled signalling the end of the lesson which caused an instant uproar in the classroom. Bags were packed and jokes were told. All in all, it was loud. Silias remained seated, covering his ears and revelling in the faux-silence. Once he felt that the majority of students had left, he slowly packed up and moved out.

'It's time to initiate mission Get Some Sleep But Don't Be Late For Next Class.'

He made his way through the castle with strange efficiency and zeroed in on his Ravenclaw dormitories. He got to the door.

"What has a bed but never sleeps?"

The door asked in a monotone voice. He was tempted to say himself but he realised compared to others he slept constantly. He stood for a moment before deciding to give the answer.

"A river."

He said uncaringly. Without a word in response, the door swung open and revealed his sanctuary. He made haste to his bedroom and flopped on the comfy bed.

"I have 35 minutes before I need to leave, I'm glad I memorised the castle's layout, otherwise this'd be a lot harder."

He nodded proudly.

"Ahh enough thinking out loud, bedtime. I hope I wake up."

——————————————————

"Bollocks."

Within the boys dormitory of Ravenclaw, a boy cursed.

Not that anyone, except maybe some paintings, heard him.

After all, each student was in their second class of the day. The boy reluctantly threw off his bedsheets, and moved as quickly as his groggy body could carry him.

'I'm only twenty minutes late. Which, hopefully, the professor might forgive. Let's just hope they're reasonable.'

Silias thought to himself whilst checking the beautiful grandfather clock that lay in the corner of his dorm room.

Donning the uniform he had thrown off prior to his slumber. The boy took one last look at his lesson timetable before heading out to the common room.

"To the dungeons!"

He cheered with mock enthusiasm as he walked - briskly - out of the warm common room. However, after walking ten steps out of the door, and into the cold stone hallways, he stopped.

"Bloody hell, it freezing."

He shuddered as he spoke. Noticing that he could see his breath, he decided going out in this climate in the clothes he wore was... Well, uncomfortable. So he spun around on the spot, and made his way back to the common room.

"What question can never be answered with a Yes?"

The door spoke in a dull tone. Silias stood for a moment, he did not want to answer a riddle right now, he was slowly turning blue. If he weren't so cold... and late for his lesson, he would have answered cheekily. Something along the lines of 'Does Silias Wallow like the door to the Ravenclaw common room?'. But he didn't have the time, so he put his head down and tried to think of the answer. But the question was so vague, and off the top of his head he could think of so many different answers.

As such, he came to the conclusion that the riddle had more than one answer, and that the door would judge whether the answer was worthy or not. This was different to all the other riddles the door had asked him previously.

'Why am I wasting so much time here, just say something.'

"Are you asleep?"

Again, like usual, the door just swung open. No remarks about his answer at all.

As he stepped through the door, he felt the blood slowly returning to his face as he stood close to the crackling fire that lay in the centre of the room. Surrounded by blue soft-looking sofas.

"I need to try those out later."

He said, looking at the chairs wistfully. Knowing that the chairs time would come, he walked up to his room, that luckily, was his and his alone. Something to do with 'the nature of Ravenclaws', or so the little goblin man said. Silias couldn't care less about why.

He opened the door, and began rummaging around in his trunk. That was, until he heard a light tapping at the door. His head turned towards the sound in confusion.

"Hello?"

He spoke softly.

"Hello."

Replied a soft, sing-song voice.

He was expecting them to carry on speaking, but when they didn't, he stood up and opened the door. Despite having guessed who it was from the voice, he was nonetheless shocked to see her.

"Luna, is everything alright?"

In a soft voice, he said to the dreamy-eyed girl.

"Oh yes, I am quite alright. Though, it's rather chilly out there."

Silias nodded his head in agreement. It really was cold.

"Ah, wait just a moment, I have something that might help."

With that, he walked away from the door, and back to his trunk. After a second of pulling out various things, he smiled.

"Luna, blue, yellow, black, or grey?"

Silias looked toward the blonde girl, and watched as she thought through the question.

"I quite like yellow."

She replied with a nod, as if to cement her commitment to the colour yellow.

"Yellow would definitely suit you."

Silias said, nodding along in agreement. And with that, he threw a yellow beanie towards Luna. Which she , although attempted, failed to catch. Ending with it landing squarely on her face, before falling to the floor. After regaining herself, she knelt down to pick up the yellow cloth. It was in a style that she didn't recognise. But making a good guess, she placed it on her head. Her entire face became covered in the yellow fabric. She looked almost like a bank robber.

"Thank you very much Silias, I love it."

Came her muffled voice from underneath the hat. Silias couldn't help but chuckle at the girl.

"That is... not how you wear it, Luna"

He said, standing up and walking over to her.

"Sorry, I can't hear very well in this. What did you say?"

Her muffled voice came, once again. Silias shook his head at the girls antics, and placed his hands on her head. He slowly peeled the hat off the Luna's face and took it in his hand.

"This is a beanie. You fold it here, and put it on."

He said, showing her how to fold the hat, before walking over to her once more, and lightly placing the hat on her. Making sure not to tug at her hair.

"Oh. It's almost like two hats in one then."

Luna said, looking up at Silias.

"I suppose. Although, I only wear it the way you did, if I'm sleeping in a really cold place."

Silias replied, thinking back to the time he had to sleep in the mountains. He shivered a bit thinking about it, before turning back to his trunk and picking up the grey beanie. As he was about to fold it, and put it on, Luna spoke up.

"Is it okay if I do it? I'd like to practice folding it."

Seeing the determined look in her eyes, Silias nodded. He was about to throw her the beanie, before he opted to just walk to her and hand it over.

'Save her kneeling to pick it up.'

He thought.

When he was stood in front of her, he passed her the grey beanie and she took it in her hands. She began to slowly fold the hat, taking care to get the proportions right. She was so concentrated that her tongue was sticking out the corner of her closed mouth, which caused Silias to smile again.

After a minute, she seemed happy with how the beanie looked, and looked towards the boy. They made eye contact, and Luna began talking,

"I am going to put it on your head."

She said seriously. Silias nodded.

Again, he could tell she was concentrating because her tongue was out again. She held the beanie in her hands, almost reverently. And as if she were crowning a new king, placed the beanie atop Silias head, before gently pulling it down to cover his ears. After making a few, quite a few, minor adjustments, she took a step back and admired her work.

"I'm done"

She nodded, with her hand on her chin. Although Silias trusted her, he wanted to see how the beanie looked.

"We should look in the mirror."

Gesturing towards the looking-glass placed atop his drawer. Luna hummed in agreement, and the pair walked to the mirror. They stood side by side, very seriously analysing how they both looked. After a couple minutes Silias broke the silence.

"Luna?"

"Yes?"

"This beanie I am wearing, is perfect. You pass with flying colours."

With that, Silias held his hand up for a high five. To which Luna looked confused.

"Thank you, I learnt from the best."

She raised her hand and lightly placed it on his. There was a moment of silence, both of their hands touching..

"Luna, do you know what a high-five is?"

Silias asked, monotonously.

"I do not."

Silias took Luna by the wrist, with his left hand, and clapped her hand, with his right. Making a small slap sound.

"You do that."

He said, hoping she understood. She hummed in acknowledgement and used her left hand to grab his wrist. Bringing his palm and her right hand to recreate the exact scene that Silas had just shown her.

"Like this?"

She said, staring at Silias with an overly innocent expression. He shook his head, and spent around 5 minutes trying to explain to Luna how high-fives worked. After being satisfied that she understood, he paused. Then he looked at the time. It had been 25 minutes since Luna arrived at his door.

"Oh bollocks."

He was now 45 minutes late for his lesson in the dungeons.

"Luna, I'm sorry but I'm late for class. I need to go."

He quickly spoke, whilst moving towards the door.

"I know."

She said in reply.

"What do you mean you know?"

Silias stopped moving and turned to look at the girl.

"I know you're late for class."

She spoke in her sing-song voice.

"...How?"

He had a bad feeling about the answer to this question.

"I was sent to come and get you by Professor Snape."

Silias face froze, to which Luna tilted her head.

"Luna we need to go."