Gus had completely forgotten that Easter Break was a thing at Hogwarts. Curse Breaking meant he didn’t get the normal holidays off, and it wasn’t until he was well-seasoned that he asked to have them off, and even then he found he didn’t want to go home. His life had stopped revolving around London when he'd left it to make a new life in Egypt, and now that he was back he found it difficult to accumulate back to the life he had during Hogwarts. Gus had let his friendships slip through his fingers, and while he’d made long-lasting ones abroad, he found most of the ones he’d made in school were fractured. (That was on him, but he pushed that thought aside.)

It was why he found himself in Hogsmeade as often as he could slip away from Hogwarts, smiling and catching up with the people he recognized who frequented there. Some people cornered him, just as a girl had done about twenty minutes ago; he couldn’t place her name although he knew they’d been in Hufflepuff together. His eyes darted around for any excuse to leave, and there, leaving some shop was a face he recognized: Eugene Scamander. Now that was a person he remembered. Friendly and in the same house, Gus had been quite fond of the other man.

Although he knew the polite thing to do was finish the conversation and slip away to greet an old friend, Gus tended to go straight after his goals. He ditched the girl mid-conversation - a boring sentence about the ideal temperature to take a dip in the Black Lake, as if Gus hadn’t jumped in in the dead of winter - and made a beeline for Eugene. The girl scoffed but made no moves to follow him.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” He greeted as he stepped in line next to him, as brightly and conversationally as if it hadn’t been a few years since they’d last spoken. But that’s how it always went - Gus had found people were more willing to pick up where they left off then blame either party for letting a friendship fade away. He grinned at him. “Though I suppose Hogsmeade is the place to be. There sure are a lot of new shops.”

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