Chapter 8

Arturo Carandini, 12 Years old.

He took a glance at the sheet he had in his hand, looking at the room the timetable had told him he will be in this Monday for his painting class. They've been in their second year of school for about two months, yet he was still struggling to remember where his classes are for each subject. It didn't help that he had the subject four times a week all in different classrooms.

Apparently, his professor liked 'change', he chuckled to himself wondering what his brother would have to say to that.

"It seems you're on time today" a lax voice said behind him. He turned to see who it was and saw his friend Allen standing there with the very same uniform as himself; He was stood there in a light blue button up classic collared shirt, which was covered in their usual blue blazer, which had a white trimming on the edges and a dark blue necktie to complete the top. Then of course there was their light blue trousers to match the rest and grey shoes.

He grinned.

Allen is in the same house as Julien and Ramón, ll. Just as he is in the same house as Julien, he is also French just as Julien. His hair was nearly as dark as his own. He was quite tall for his age; Arturo was also tall for his age, but Allen still had a few inches on him.

"You make it seem as though I'm never early Allen" Arturo responded as he rolled his eyes, in response Allen snorted.

Allen then took two long strides to situate himself at Arturo's side as they stood in front of the door, standing idle beside it as they spoke to one another.

"That's because you rarely are. Usually, you get here about a minute before the class starts. Anyways where's Julien?" Allen spoke as they stood at the side of the door turning his head left and right glancing down the quiet hallway.

There were barely any classes on in this end of the school they were in, well at least not at this time seeing as they rarely saw other students, only a handful.

With furrowed brows, Arturo placed his hand on the hand of the door ready to walk in and then answered his friend, "I don't know where he is, shouldn't you? You usually have class with him before we go for Professor Martin's class on Monday's"

Allen followed him into the classroom as he listened to the response. As they walked in, they noticed how the other students were still standing, all gathered together in the corner of the room all chattering away.

They both look confused, then understood why the other students were standing around. The class was empty, well it was unprepared for class. Usually, the canvases would be already there like how their desks for class where already there, waiting for them to take a seat.

With that, they walked towards the other students.

"Yeah, usually he's with me for Transfiguration. We usually have it with the Ombrelune's. Hydrus was there, I asked him to cause Julien wasn't there either"

Arturo then shrugged his shoulders again, "Then I don't know what to tell you-"

"Art! Long time no see- oh hey Al!"

He turned his head to see a familiar auburn-haired boy, "Nic" he greeted, Allen in turn nodded his head to the boy in greeting as well, "Nicholas."

The door burst open revealing their professor, professor Martin. Eleanor Martin. She barged into the room as usual, her wand in hand with her usual grin on her face. The door that had opened unexpectantly had startled them all.

As usual she had barged in without a word. She raised her wand and muttered a spell under her breath and before they knew it, they were staring in awe as about 30 canvas's appeared, making a circle, with each one having a stool.

Usually, they class would have been set already but this time it had not. She turned to the class with a bright smile and told them they were to make a fruit bowl and upon finishing we would then cast a spell to have the image move, having the bowl fall and the fruit falling out.

She had demonstrated and then motioned for us to begin.

He wasn't sure if he was finished or not. He leaned to the right to get a view of the large fruit bowl professor Martin had placed in the middle of the room and looked back to his painting seeing what else needed to be done.

He wanted his painting to look nice.

-

Ramón through his fist into the air and yelled, "Para la línea de tiempo!" he spoke in his language, completely forgetting about the rule of only speaking French.

Hydrus snorted as he rolled his eyes, while Julien shook his head. Arturo watched in amusement as he saw a prefect walk towards them having just heard Ramon.

"Alcon, how many times have I had to tell you to speak French!" a voice called out to the Alcon heir.

"10 times in counting" Julien helpfully contributed where he was seated, which was on a window seal.

They were all situated in a hallway on the second floor. Arturo wasn't even sure what they were talking about, he was seated beside Julien on the window seat, while Ramón and Hydrus were stood in front of them, talking back and forth when suddenly he was snapped back into reality when Ramón threw his fist into the air.

"…Sorry- For the timeline!" Ramon repeated this time in French, only for the fifth-year prefect that had heard him to shake his head before walking away.

In all honesty they weren't sure themselves what it meant, it was something Hydrus would say occasionally, it didn't take long for it to become a regular use of an excuse. At first, around the time they began becoming friends with Hydrus, they were confused to why he was saying it. No matter what they said or did, Hydrus refused to explain, only giving the simple phrase of, 'it's for the timeline'. Nonetheless they got used to it and saw it as an inside joke.

Ramón turned his attention back to his friends, "So thoughts?" he asked. Hydrus nodded his head, while Julien responded, "Yeah, sure. It just depends when."

With that said, all three of them turned their heads towards Arturo who raised his brow, "Um, yes…" he decided to respond with, only having what Julien had just said as reference as to what they had been talking about.

"You have no idea what we were just talking about do you?" Hydrus drawled as he leaned his head against the wall beside them.

"I suppose not…" Arturo spoke again.

Ramón groaned, "I was inviting you to the Alcon Manor."

"Ahh, then that's fine, I should be able to go."

Summer was just around the corner, just a week or so to go and they would be free from studies, and he would once again see his brother. He hadn't gone home for any of the holidays this academic year, so he was actually excited to see his brother again.

With the response given, Ramón decided to push in between both Julien and Arturo making room for himself to sit on the window seal just as they were doing.

"Get your fat ass off, there's no space!" Julien yelled drawing some attention to them seeing as they were in the middle of a hallway which students and teachers alike walked through. Thankfully no teacher was in site as Julien decided it was a good idea to curse.

"There is space! You wish your ass could be as fat as mine!" Ramón spoke back shoving Julien, who in turn push him back.

"Art… they're at it again" Arturo heard Hydrus call out to him. He rolled his eyes, it was obvious they were at it again, he was sat there getting shoved about just as much as Julien was since he hadn't moved, only moving as he was pressed against the wall beside him.

"Well, you're the more mature one of the group, so you can stop them" Arturo responded back loudly over the loud grunts and name calling Julien and Ramón were doing.

Hydrus pursed his lips looking into the distance, then turned his gaze back to Arturo, "Want to go to the kitchen?" knowing that would do just the trick. He grinned down at Arturo knowing his friend would catch on.

With a smile on his face, Arturo gladly stood up. "Of course, I want to go." He responded.

"Kitchen?" Ramón chirped out, looking up from where Julien had got him in a head lock. Julien himself stopped the attack at the sound of 'Kitchen'.

--

"…What's up with Drus?" Julien asked as he stared intently at his nails, picking the dirt from it.

Arturo looked towards his direction not really knowing what to say. It had only been a week since the incident and Hydrus was staying clear of them. It was just after they had left the kitchen, hiding the food away from prying eyes, they had heard a commotion along the corridor.

It was a third year Ombrelune and a second-year Papillionlisse arguing, Arturo and Ramón could care less for the situation and were ready to head to the court yard to eat their food, while Julien was the most nosy out of them all and headed straight towards the crowd surround both students, reductively Hydrus followed along curious himself with some words being easy to make out.

With both their friends gone, Ramón and Arturo looked to each other seemingly having a silence conversation with their eyes, after a few seconds they both shrugged their shoulders and headed towards their friends.

He pushed himself through the crowd to see what the commotion was all about. As he finally reached the front of the crowd of people he saw a familiar head of hair, the only that would belong to Peverell, his friend. His messy hair was hard not to notice.

Although… what was he doing?

The boy in question had a girl, who seemed to be in second year just as they were. He recognised her from some of the classes they would share. If he had to guess correctly the brown headed girl, with brown eyes to match, was a pro just like Julien and Ramón.

Her name was Elodie Richard, a 'sanguemarcio'…

As they were stood there, they were facing another student, a third year maybe, seeing as Arturo couldn't remember the person from any of his classes.

"Like you're any better" he heard Hydrus snap at the boy stood in of him.

Arturo shifted to the side to get a better look at the boy, to see his crest- ah, there it was, he was in Ombrelune, the same house as Hydrus… but why were they arguing? And what did the girl have to do with it.

"All there is too It, is an apology!" the girl shouted from behind Hydrus, then proceeding to push Hydrus out of her way as she stalked towards the boy.

"I swear if I don't get one, you're not going to see the light of day" she hissed narrowing her eyes up at the tall boy.

The boy snorted, "It gets angry" the boy responded sarcastically followed by a few laughs from the crowd.

"…it? Did you just call me an 'it'?!" she shouted, her wand in hand, pointed right at his neck, that seemed to clear the smirk the boy had on his face off.

"Stop that!" Hydrus intervened again, trying to get the girl to remove her wand, "Apologise." She demanded.

"I rather lick the bottom of my shoe than apologise to filth like you. You should already know you're place."

-

Julien continued staring at his nails and held them up, "Do you think they're sharp enough to make Mon bleed" he said with a goofy smile.

Arturo stared at him for a long while, "Well… I suppose, but weren't we just talking about Hydrus?"

"Oh right, Hydrus… I still don't get why he's annoyed at us, even Ramón agreed with us! He's being so dramatic about the whole situation; this wouldn't have happened if we just went and ate the food."

He didn't respond.