Bram froze, a rabbit in the wandlight. If it was one of his dormmates again –

Oh, it was only Esteban. Bram relaxed, just a little, a corner of his mouth softening in relief. Esteban Zavala had never been anything less than nice to him. Esteban Zavala was someone he was fortunate to call his friend. Esteban Zavala, somehow, even noticed when he was missing, and that felt –

Esteban Zavala now sounded a little bit like his mother, though, and Bram ducked his gaze to hold back an embarrassed chuckle. Instead, he lied – in an incomprehensible mumble that sounded suspiciously like just doing my Astronomy homework, never mind that he didn’t have any books or star charts out (obviously he couldn’t be, since he hadn’t found any of his schoolthings yet) and he wasn’t standing anywhere near the common room window. Instead, he was clutching a cushion in front of his chest, as if one could do their weekly star-gazing peering down the back of a sofa.

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