Chapter Six:
Take My Hand

✶

Monday,
October 31st,
1977.

Halloween, in Archer's opinion, was... interesting. Like, alright, you got to dress up in funny costumes and eat as much candy as you want, but there was definitely a creepy side to it as well. Who in their right mind decided that little kids knocking on strangers' doors at night was a good idea? It baffled him the more he thought about it.

     The festivities at Hogwarts were pretty good, however. Whilst no one dressed up or did anything like that, there was a magnificent feast in the Great Hall in the evening that everyone looked forward to, and Archer was no exception. The thought of it made his mouth water. Unfortunately, the feast was still several hours away, but Archer waited in anticipation.

     To pass the time, Archer and Dhruv were at the Black Lake. It was early in the morning, so the air was quite cool. The lake reflected the overcast sky, grey and white and a little overwhelming to look at for too long. Archer liked spending time at the lake. It was calming, and it made him feel at ease when there were no stars for him to look at.

     "So, there is this girl..."

     For the last ten minutes, Dhruv had been talking with him about his new sweetheart, Heather Finch. Sentences—or poems, really... not that Archer would dare say that to Dhruv's face, or dare face a considerable amount of denial—regarding Heather were spoken in between Dhruv skipping stones across the lake.

     "She is the one, Archie," Dhruv informed him before picking up another stone. He skillfully threw it, and it skidded once, then twice, and then finally a third time before it landed with a plop and sunk into the depths of the lake. "I swear it. Every other girl vanishes from my mind the moment I see her."

     "Riiiight."

     Alright, look, he didn't know Heather Finch. Not really. The most he had interacted with her was the other week, in the kitchens... and that hadn't exactly been the most pleasant interaction. But here was the thing: he knew Dhruv, and... well, Dhruv had an affinity for crushing on a pretty girl and then forgetting about her existence a week later when he met another one.

     Dhruv sent him a look. "Come off it. You've never been in love."

     Archer didn't say anything to that, but his expression turned a little sour. What would he even say, anyway? Dhruv didn't know—and had no way of knowing—about him and Sirius.

     Completely oblivious to Archer's bitterness, Dhruv sighed, completely and utterly lovestruck. "Anyway, she's the one."

     "Hmph. You sure about that? It's not like this is the first girl that's been 'the one'." Archer couldn't stop the harsh words from spilling out, but he regretted them as soon as he said them.

     Dhruv hesitated, holding off from skipping the stone in his hand, completely caught off-guard. His cheeks turned pink and he let out an embarrassed laugh, and he said, "What's that supposed to mean?"

     "Nothing. Erm, forget I said anything."

     A bad feeling settled in Archer's stomach and he couldn't get rid of it. Especially not when Dhruv pressured, "No, what? I want to know." His initial shock had worn off, and now he just seemed offended. Archer didn't blame him.

     Archer didn't answer—he couldn't bring himself to. He knew that anything he said would come out wrong. Dhruv didn't say anything further, which was almost worse. The silence was suffocating. Archer watched silently as Dhruv turned the stone in his hand over a few times, getting a feel of its weight, before moving to skip it across the lake... except he hesitated. The stone fell from his hand and onto the ground, where it landed with a thump.

     "Look, Dhruv—"

     But Dhruv wouldn't look him in the eye. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Erm, I'm just going to go before I say something that I regret."

     If anyone was feeling regret, it was Archer. The nauseating emotion bubbled in his stomach as he watched his best friend walk away from the lake and over the hill. He ran his hand over his face. "Fuck."

✶

Thursday,
July 21st,
1977.

A few blocks away from Archer's house was a Muggle cinema. He had visited it many times with Harvey. It was decorated with earthy colours and tones and couldn't have been more than a decade old. Archer adored it, but despite his affinity for the cinema, it had been Sirius' idea to go see a movie.

     Sirius had stayed the night last night. This wasn't something that was new to them; when they were younger, they'd had plenty of sleepovers. However, this time it felt different to Archer, and he guessed that was because of his newly discovered feelings regarding Sirius. It certainly didn't help that he had awoken to Sirius' arms around his waist...

     When Sirius had suggested that they go see a movie, Archer hadn't objected. In fact, he had been quite excited about it. Besides, how could he resist that handsome face?

     "Alright," Sirius said when they arrived, "I'm going to go get tickets. I'll be right back."

     Archer nodded and went to sit down on a bench nearby. Looking around, he observed the busy cinema with interest. There were all kinds of people here, and it was quite fascinating. An unsurprising amount of them were families with little kids, but there were also lots of couples and the occasional person who was here by themselves. He watched as an elderly gentleman lent his hand out to an elderly woman, who accepted with a smile. Archer thought it was sweet.

     It wasn't long before Sirius came back with two tickets and a mischievous smile. Archer took a ticket from him, then paused. "Hang on," he said, frowning, "How did you pay for these? Have you got Muggle money, or something?"

     Sirius smirked, a twinkle in his eye. "Or something."

     Archer frowned, then his jaw dropped open suddenly. He had noticed Sirius' hands behind his back, and as he watched Sirius put away his wand in his pocket, he said, "Did you... confund the ticket person?" And when Sirius merely winked at him, Archer found himself rolling his eyes in good humour.

     Then Sirius extended his hand out for Archer to take.

     Archer hesitated. He thought about the elderly couple he had seen minutes prior who had acted out this exact scenario; he thought about last night on the roof, him and Sirius close together under the stars; and he thought about the way his heart skipped a beat every time Sirius spoke to him, every time he looked in his direction.

     With these thoughts running through his mind, Archer said, "Won't someone see us?"

     "They're just Muggles," Sirius said, shrugging. "It's not like they can do anything about it. We're the ones with magic."

     Archer hummed. He supposed that Sirius was right. Still, his mind couldn't help but flash back to almost a week prior, when those two Muggles had jumped Archer and left him bloodied and bruised.

     "It's alright," Sirius said, his eyes holding a knowing glint. "You've got me, now."

     The two boys shared a long look.

     Taking Sirius' hand and his words in stride, Archer got up from the seat and they started to walk toward the cinema where the movie was screening. Archer found himself accidentally making eye contact with a man sitting across the room. He was wearing this dark trench coat which must have been hot and heavy—it was the middle of summer after all!—but only added to his intimidating exterior. His eyes flickered down to where Archer and Sirius' hands were intertwined. Archer's heart began to beat faster with dread. Fuck. 

     His dread was almost immediately replaced with relief when the man looked away and went back to the newspaper he had been reading, presumably waiting for someone to come out after watching their movie.

     Archer shook his head a little to relieve himself of those feelings. He didn't know why he was acting like this—it wasn't like him and Sirius were in a relationship. They were just friends. Why would anyone care if they were hanging out together? Sirius didn't seem to question his behaviour, however, leading him into the cinema.

     Just as they sat down, the opening credits started to play. It read: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

     The movie continued, and it was good—really good. However, about halfway through he realised something: Sirius and him were still holding hands. They hadn't stopped, not since before the movie started. All of a sudden he became extremely conscious of this fact, and it distracted him an awful lot from the movie. Did Sirius know? Had he been aware this entire time and just not said anything? Or had he forgotten, just like Archer had? He hoped Sirius wouldn't notice they were still holding hands, because if he did, he might pull away, and the thing was... Archer really liked it, and he didn't want it to end.

     Archer could feel his cheeks start to heat up. He forced himself to stare intently at the movie screen—so much so that he lost track of what was happening, too focused on focusing that he had lost focus.

     But then something happened—Sirius, as though sensing what Archer was going through, gently squeezed his hand. All at once, the butterflies in Archer's stomach soared and he couldn't resist a smile from breaking out on his lips. He gently squeezed back. It felt right.

✶

Monday,
October 31st,
1977.

Archer felt horrible. He hadn't meant to indirectly slut shame Dhruv, but he had, and it had been weighing on him all day. After waiting a little while at the Black Lake, he had gone back to their dormitory to apologise, but Dhruv hadn't been there. Now, it was dinner time, and Archer knew that Dhruv would be at the Great Hall for the feast—Dhruv wouldn't miss it for the world. He was like Archer in that way.

     He was a little late for dinner as he had been waiting in the dormitory to see if Dhruv would show up before the feast—he hadn't. Now, as he walked through the corridors and down the stairs to the Great Hall, he hoped he wasn't too late, because then he would not only miss the magnificent feast, but he would also miss Dhruv as well, because no doubt he would be hanging out with Heather afterwards. If that was the case, Archer wouldn't be able to see his best friend until whenever he got back—like Archer, Dhruv also had a certain disregard of curfew—and that seemed like too far in the future.

     As his shoes touched the bottom stair, a voice called out from above him.

     "Hey, Archer—"

     Oh, God. The one other person who happened to be late to dinner just had to be Sirius, didn't it? Archer couldn't catch a fucking break. Alright, sure, there might have been a part of him a while ago who thought that they could still be friends after everything that happened, but the reality of the situation was that it had still happened, and he couldn't pretend it hadn't. He didn't want to dwell on all that, though. There were more important things he needed to take care of, like his falling-out with Dhruv.

     "Hi," Archer said shortly, turning the corner and leaving no room for conversation. Sirius followed him anyway, jogging a little bit to catch up.

     "So, are you ready for detention on Friday?" Sirius asked. When Archer didn't answer, he added, "Kingston better be in a good mood. Fuck, if I have to polish one more trophy by hand I swear I'm gonna—!"

     Archer stopped suddenly. He spun around to face Sirius, a scowl on his lips. "Oh, my God. Why can't you just... leave me alone?"

     Sirius stopped, too. "If that's what you want...?"

     "Yeah," Archer said without thinking. "It is."

     He walked away, and this time Sirius didn't follow him.

     Stepping into the Great Hall, Archer immediately walked toward the Ravenclaw table. He wasn't too late to the feast, thank Merlin, but he was late enough that Dumbledore had already made his speech and the food had already appeared. The table was filled with a selection of delicious foods, from a range of meats to a variety of vegetables and more. The heavenly smell almost made Archer's mouth water, but he couldn't focus on his hunger right now.

     Archer sat down at the Ravenclaw table, right across from Dhruv. He didn't make any move to fill his plate up with food, instead sitting still and looking at his best friend, gauging his reaction.

     After a few seconds, Dhruv looked up from his food. "Archie—"

     "Wait, no, let me say something real quick," Archer said, stopping Dhruv before he could go any further. He hesitated, knowing exactly what he wanted to say but a little unsure how to get the words out. "Erm... I'm sorry about earlier. I was a jerk. And it's no excuse, but I've just been feeling a bit off recently, and I shouldn't have taken that out on you."

     Dhruv let out a long sigh. For a dreadful moment, Archer thought he wasn't going to respond, but then he said, "It's alright, Archie."

     "It is?"

     "Yeah," Dhruv said, nodding. He set his knife and fork down on the plate in front of him. "I mean, I was a bit pissed off, but after some time I figured something was wrong—you're not usually like that." He hesitated for a moment. "Erm... are you okay? You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"

     Archer's lips tugged into an emotional smile. The way Dhruv was able to put aside his own feelings first to make sure someone else was alright was something that Archer admired about him, and wished he was as good at doing that as Dhruv was. More often than not, Archer acted on his own feelings first before thinking about how the other person was feeling...

     But it was a big relief to hear Dhruv say that. Archer hated it when people were mad at him; the guilt gnawed at him and it felt horrible, because it was usually his own fault.

     "Thanks, Dhruv."

     Dhruv smiled at him, and he smiled back. Now, Archer was able to appreciate the magnificent feast before him; he could finally enjoy it wholeheartedly. And it was good...

word count: 2446
27.12.2021