September 25th, 1890 — Hogwarts Corridors

It was not easy to getting true alone time, but even in the past four days Cameron had gotten used to taking advantage of whatever time they had alone in conversation, even if it meant avoiding physical contact as other students passed them in the corridors. He didn't think any of their friends were suspicious. They didn't have any reason to, at least. He'd made a conscious effort to pay her no special attention when they were all together in small groups. He'd wished her goodnight without sparing a second glance last night after noticing a group of seventh years watching them, and he'd even chose to walk side-by-side with Calla on the way to Herbology while she trailed behind with another friend. It was painful when all he wanted to do was bump shoulders and tease her, but it was less painful than being caught and ruining everything.

He'd gave Sisse some mindless excuse about needing to get somewhere before History of Magic and walked ahead of her, hoping to find a spare minute with Sloane near their designated waiting spot outside the classroom. Pleased to find her waiting alone outside the classroom, and even more pleased to see that she didn't notice him, he approached her from behind, pressing his lips tightly together to avoid making a single peep. He paused for a moment, a smile twitching on her lips, and then suddenly poked a finger against her side.

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Sloane Bixby

  

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Merlin's beard this whole pretending like nothing was going on between her and Cam was A LOT harder than she would have ever imagined. They spent so much time together surrounded by other people that age knew they had to be covert and make it seem like nothing had changed, except everything had. Ugh, teenage years.

Though she knew it was for the better, it was kind of hard to be ignored when all she wanted was attention. Sloane was a creature who thrived on attention and she couldn't get it from the one person she wanted it from. Still, it would keep then out of trouble, so she made a concentrated effort to keep things as they were, which meant waking with other friends and keeping her eyes and her hands to herself.

Early to History of Magic, which never happened, Sloane leaned one shoulder against the wall, head against the wall as well as she waited. The poke to her side was thoroughly unexpected and startled hey more than she was willing to admit. Sloane came around swinging, her natural reaction to having four brothers. She regretted it almost instantly- what if it was Calla or Alice! It was too late, though she was able to reign in some if the effort behind it, she couldn't stop herself entirely.

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That was a mistake.

It was easy to assume Sloane was weak as well as petite, but years of being smacked around (usually in a friendly way, but they'd had their moments) had taught him otherwise. Still, he hadn't expected her to deck him!

He let out an involuntary groan and stumbled backwards, gripping his stomach. It was nothing like the light whacks and smacks he'd earned while teasing her—it was a solid fist! Bent over himself, Cam looked up with her with a mixture of betrayal and light amusement. If she'd hit him any lower he might've become the last Gillenwater in his bloodline.

"So violent," he breathed, feeling the ache in his ribs as he tried to straighten his posture. His ribs weren't broken, but they were certainly bruised if nothing else. "Tell me how you really feel, won't you?" He tried to laugh, but instead hissed in pain.

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Well at least it wasn't one if the girls. Still she felt instantaneously guilty as he groaned and doubled over for a minute. "Oh Cam!" She squeaked, rearranging the things in her hands to the floor next to her, so that she could uselessly fret with them free. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!! You scared me!" At least a tug on her braid and she would have known it was him!

She didn't know what to do, the corridor was empty for the moment, but she wasn't going to risk someone walking around the corner at any time. "Are you okay?" She softened, stepping closer to him, but held back on reaching out.

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He nodded as she apologized, still trying to work on standing upright without feeling the need to vomit. He hadn't had lunch yet, and he was almost glad for it; if it were later in the day, his lunch might be all over her feet right about now. He was grateful that most of the corridor had cleared out for the moment, but he could hear voices from around the corner and knew their spot would be flooded with other History of Magic students.

"I think I'm the one who should be scared," he chuckled, winging immediately after. He put a hand on the wall beside him and managed to stand upright, feeling the strain in his torso while doing so. Yep, definitely a bruised rib; he'd have to come up with an explanation that was not Hey guys, I'm so fragile that Sloane managed to take me out while completely unaware. He hoped she wasn't thinking about how weak he was. "Or maybe I should be worried. Who's hurt you so bad that your instinct is to gut-punch someone?" Her brothers, he imagined, but still. At least he hadn't copped a mouse; it would have been more difficult to hide that.

He smiled down at her when she expressed a very clear concern for him, noting the softness in her voice that had never been there before now. H glanced behind her, and then behind him, and then reached out an arm to briefly touch her upper arm.

"If you tell anyone about this I'm dropping out of Hogwarts, but otherwise, yes, I'm okay."

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Sloane felt absolutely awful for having hit him so hard. She really hadn't meant to! She was still thankful it was Cam though, he'd be fine. If it have been one of the girls or even Ned it would have been much worse! Poor Leander would have been on the floor!

"Four older brothers. Wally is the worst though, always prodding and teasing me. He stopped for a while after I got him good once, but now he knows how to dodge." The brat.

"I really am sorry, are you alright?" Even the touch on her arm wasn't enough to convince her. "I think it looks worse for me, but I promise not to tell anyone." So many secrets between them. It was going to cause trouble one of these days. Looking around like he did briefly, without seeing anyone, she took his free hand in hers to give it a quick squeeze, her charm bracelet jingling merrily in the empty hall as she dropped it back to her side.

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He was right, her brother's must have been a menace when she was growing up. With only one younger sister (well, two, but he hardly counted Maddy and Oak since he didn't grow up with them) he'd never found the urge to pick on her, but if he'd had three other brothers, well. He might have.

"I won't lie to you. I've probably got a bruise in the shape of your fist, but luckily nobody's going to see that in History class," he joked, squeezing her hand and quickly dropping it in the same moment. He'd probably have to bother Alice for a pain potion later, or risk getting questioning by the nurse. He'd come up with some excuse for the time being. "But next time I'll remember to not do that. I'll add that to my list of Sloane things," he said with a smile.

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Sloane winced when he said she'd likely bruised him. Well now she felt absolutely awful. "A tug on the braid is much safer." He was the only one who did that anyway. It would be a dead giveaway that it was him.

She was about to say she'd make it up to him another time, if they could swing it, but his comment about a list sparked a memory of another time that he'd said that. "You keep a list?" She said, a truly amused smile tugging the corner of her lips upward. Once upon a time he mentioned a list of her hair colors, but she'd honestly thought he'd been kidding. Was that really the case?

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He reached out and tugged on the end of her braid as she suggested it, knowing that it was one of the few ways he could show his affection without causing a scene. He'd done it before they'd admitted their mutual affection as a way of greeting and teasing, and every single one of their friends had witnessed it before. "You'll regret telling me that," he said, twirling the pink ends around his finger before letting fall back over her shoulder.

Other students began to arrive a the time, so Cameron made sure he was positioned at an appropriate distance from her. It wasn't against the rules to be alone while waiting for class, but it was frowned upon to be so close together. He knew he'd mentioned the list to her before, but it was this summer that he'd added to it for the first time since he was a third year. The year gap between their friendship had left a lot to be learned, especially now that they were getting older.

"I try to. You know how bad I am at remembering stuff," he said, shrugging as if it were no big deal. He had most of the colors down now: blue for sad, yellow and pink for happy, a deeper shade of pink for embarrassment or affection, green for envy. There were other colors that he'd seen before that he hadn't yet assigned a specific emotion to, but it seemed redundant now that she could change her hair according to her whims. "Just the basics. Your birthday. Things you like. Your hair." His gaze dropped and he shrugged again, hoping she didn't think he was weird or creepy.

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Sloane's smile faded to one of fondness, but it didn't last too long as she heard other students approaching finally. She turned quickly to gather her books and bag from the floor, leaving an acceptable (and regrettable) amount of distance between them. She highly doubted she'd regret telling him about the braid though, it had always been something she enjoyed, now it had something even more personal attached to it.

Right the hair. He had definitely mentioned he kept track of that before, how could she have forgotten? She didn't know about the birthday or things she liked though. It was sweet. She could remember things like that, but the fact that he deemed them important enough to write down was really quite endearing.

There were too many people around now for her to comment on it, but she'd pass him a note in class later. Instead, all she could really do was pass him a wink as she turned toward the door for class and make the pink at the end of her braid more noticeable and hope it would do for now.

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