Old Friends at New Times (Camm)

It had been nearly two months since Kyle had left Hogwarts for what he was sure would be the last time until he was back to save Linnet. He didn’t know how he was going to do it, or if there even was a way to do it, but he would be damned if he didn’t try. The last two months had been some of the worst of the boy’s life. He had gone through a lot after the battle at Hogwarts, seeing the things he saw, hearing the things he heard. A mild case of post-traumatic stress was the least of his worries in the days, weeks and months following the battle. This was different though, this time it was Linnet he was worried about. The two had become like one over the years since the battle of Hogwarts. They had spent summers together at the dragon reserve in Wales, weeks at the council together, hidden a forbidden love from their superiors and struggled through impossible classes together. Now, Kyle was alone, a feeling he had not dealt with since finding out he was an elemental. He had to find a way to fix this, through the council or not.

Before he had left Hogwarts, Kyle had said his goodbyes to many friends and classmates. He was sure he would see some of them in the outside world, but it would be much less frequently and the breaks would be much longer in duration. That, coupled with the rather nonstandard nature of his departure, made Kyle the subject of many questions in his last days at school and on the train home. Finally, as the train made the final approach to the station, Kyle decided he couldn’t hold out on his friends anymore. He had gathered a small group of his original year mates and explained a few things to them. He had told them about his elementalism, about what he believed had happened to Linnet, and what he was planning to do. Some of the boy’s had offered help, some seemed shocked and others didn’t seem to know how to react at all. One of his oldest friends, Camm, reacted the best and was most supportive of Kyle in his time of need, and now he needed to rely on Camm again.

Kyle had been searching for weeks for something he could do to help Linnet, to no avail. He had started noticing a decline in his control over his earth magic and now he was starting to deal with a flood of emotions. Kyle had never been particularly good at dealing with or understanding his emotions. In the weeks following the battle of Hogwarts, he had attacked another elemental, a crime normally punished harshly by the Council, had seen his powers ebb and flow, and had very nearly lost himself in reliving the terrors on a daily basis. Now Kyle was beginning to spiral downward again. As bad as it was though, Camm would know how to help. The two had known each other since the beginning, had shared dormitories, stories, life, classes and pretty much everything else since starting at Hogwarts. If anyone would be able to help now that Linnet was gone for the time being, it would be him.

Only a few weeks before the trial was set to begin for Linnet’s murderer, Kyle had written Camm, sending an owl from Inverness that he needed to meet up and the two agreed Diagon Alley would be a good place to start. Packing a small travel bag, Kyle made his way into Inverness and travelled by Floo to the Leaky Cauldron to meet up with his longtime friend. Dusting himself off, Kyle looked round the nearly empty pub and noted that Camm had not yet arrived. Doing his best to smile at the toothless Tom behind the bar, Kyle pulled up a stool, asked for a firewhiskey, and set down a few silver coins to pay for the drink. Everyone knew it was much more enjoyable to catch up with old friends over drinks than to do so sober.

It was a hard concept to grasp that one of your oldest friends, someone who practically grew up with you, slept in the bed next to you, was someone different from what you thought, maybe even something different. It's been a while, but in the months before he graduated he would turn over in his bed and look at where Kyle used to sleep, and he still had trouble understanding that this was the reality he was living in. Kyle was an elemental. He didn't have magic like Camm did, and he was able to return to his element someday. Was his friend still a wizard? Was he still a human, or some entirely different being altogether? Or was he more human than Camm could ever hope to be? There were so many questions he wanted to ask Kyle, but being a supportive friend was more important than finding answers at that moment when he told a select group of friends the truth.

Some of their friends didn't take it so well. While he couldn't exactly blame them, he found himself associating less and less. Whether they had drifted apart naturally, or Camm was subconsciously avoiding them, he had no real desire to find out. He always believed in putting aside differences when a friend was in distress and needed help, but not everyone was of the same mind. Maybe that's why they had the war in the first place, because people couldn't put the small differences aside to look at the big picture. Shaking his head, he carefully put his new camera of which the lens he had been cleaning, into the bottom drawer of his desk and locked it. He had no more assignments for the day, which was perfect, since he was due to meet Kyle at the Leaky Cauldron. It would probably be easier to floo there from the Prophet's headquarters, but Camm fancied a short walk to clear his head.

While he was excited to see his friend again, there was a certain level of trepidation on Camm's part. They had briefly kept in contact after Kyle left school, but it didn't feel right, exchanging pleasantries and skirting around things they should've been talking about. What happened to Linnet was everywhere on the news, and he knew that Kyle would probably be having a difficult time dealing with it. It was a shame. Linnet was just so... nice. She was his fellow Hufflepuff prefect, and while they weren't the best of friends, Camm liked her. How anybody could have it in them to hurt her was beyond him. There had been a time when all communication ceased between them, and Camm had been surprised, but glad to see the familiar owl turn up by his window. Sometimes it was hard for him to be the first to reach out, but he never turned away a friend.

Picking up his pace, the photographer pushed open the door to the Leaky Cauldron and waited for his eyes to adjust to the slightly darker interior. It wasn't difficult to spot Kyle; the pub was relatively empty. It was still to early to be drinking, even by London's standards. "Kyle," Camm smiled, reaching over to clap his friend on the back, "how've you been, mate?" He pulled up a stool next to his friend and signalled for an empty glass. "Scourgify," he muttered softly, in an attempt to siphon off some of the grime that was on it. You can never be too careful at Leaky Cauldron. Who knew where Tom's rag had been? That thing looked like it hadn't been washed since he left the cradle. "You holding up ok with... you know, everything?" Camm gave his friend a wiry smile and took a sip of his beer. He felt like he would be having a lot more of those over the course of the evening.


@Michael sorry i took so long to reply! i hope this is ok ^^;

Kyle sat alone in the dimly lit bar drinking his firewhiskey. While most alcohol had a stupefying quality on the boy, firewhiskey, for some reason, had a calming effect. Kyle was able to think better with a few small shots of the red liquid. His glass gave off a small spiral of magical smoke, the smell of fire reaching his nose as he began to think of how he was going to explain himself to Camm. He knew he wouldn’t really have to explain much, if anything, to his housemate but it was still worth thinking about, especially as he sat alone in the pub. Kyle wondered just how much he should tell Camm. He was pretty sure that he and Linnet had done a good job of keeping their relationship a secret, although it was Hogwarts so there was no telling how many people knew by this point. Taking another drink from his glass, Kyle decided he would tell Camm about his relationship with Linnet, hoping he would understand why this was so hard for him now.

As Kyle sat, deep in thought regarding what else to reveal to one of his best and oldest friends in the magical world, he heard the door to the pub open. Not bothering to stand, Kyle took another drink of his firewhiskey as Camm crossed the pub and said his hellos. Doing his best to smile, Kyle responded to the other young man, “Camm, it’s been too long. And I feel like we left things in an awkward place. I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.” Kyle knew that even if he had caught him at the worst time, Camm would be too polite and too concerned to say so. He could tell by the way the other man talked to him, his tone and choice of words that he was worried, or at the very least, unsure whether or not to be worried. In reality, Camm was probably more in touch with Kyle than Kyle was with himself these days.

Watching his friend pull up a stool and order a drink, Kyle waited. He was good at conversation, especially with friends, but this was different. While he and Camm had been close for the first six years at Hogwarts, the last year had been hard on Kyle. He had been kept back with the younger students due to his poor marks. He had spent the year learning new faces, new personalities, but more importantly not in class with his old year mates. The boys who had grown together were now separated by a year and, by nature of their exams, been isolated from each other. Deciding if the silence went on too long he would break it, Kyle heard Camm speak up once more. This was the Camm he knew would be here. The concerned Camm, the friend who had always been better at looking out for Kyle’s wellbeing than Kyle had.

Kyle took another sip from his glass before answering. “I guess I am doing alright, as good as can be hoped right now honestly. These past few weeks have been pretty hard for me if we are being honest.” Kyle was always able to tell Camm things he would normally keep from others. He wasn’t good at admitting he wasn’t in control of things. His magic was the one exception. He told everyone he was bad at wand magic, however, he always failed to mention why it was he was so bad at using his wand. Truth be told, ‘hard’ was probably an understatement for the last few weeks. His research regarding Linnet’s condition and forced morph had been as useless as leprechaun gold. Every time he thought he had found something new that would help, the lead would fall flat on its face. The hours spent pouring over old tomes and manuscripts in Gaelic said nothing of assisting someone out of a morph, especially after any kind of damage done to an elemental’s physical form.

After a few moments passed, Kyle couldn’t handle the quiet anymore between the two. Downing the remainder of his glass, Kyle took a deep breath, “Over the last month, I have been holed up in a library at the council, doing everything I can to find information about Linnet and her condition, trying to find out any way I can to help her. I just don’t know what to do. It feels like I am useless here and those idiots at the council area aren’t doing a damn thing to help. It is almost as if they don’t care about her at all.” Kyle held back, attempting to control the rage that had been building over the last few months. He had seem himself at his most destructive, angry state and that was something he wanted to try his best to avoid going through ever again.

"Don't worry about it." Camm waved his hand dismissively. He wasted a whole year pining over a girl he couldn't have, pushing away his friends and family for nothing. He always felt guilty about that, and he tried his best to make up for it after. It probably wasn't healthy, to try and be there for his friends no matter the time and occasion, but he felt like he owed it to them. He would get over it eventually, he knew that, especially now since he was in a happy relationship with someone else, but the Hufflepuff side couldn't find it in him to turn away anyone right now.

The young wizard nodded sympathetically when his friend admitted that he hadn't been doing the best. He wasn't surprised. Although Kyle didn't bring up his relationship with Linnet very much, or at all, Camm knew they had something special between them. What exactly it was he didn't ask. He'd never been one to pry, and in his experience, it was always better not to. Working at the Daily Prophet meant that he was no stranger to invasive journalism, although he wasn't sure if he believed what they said about the Slytherin boy being the murderer. He'd gotten over a lot of his bias against Slytherin, and Damien Conway just didn't seem like he'd do anything like that.

Quickly getting through the rest of his beer, Camm thunked the glass back down on the counter and signaled for another round. "The council... That's something like, your version of the Wizengamot or something, right?" It had been part of their jumbled conversation when Kyle first revealed he was an elemental, but Camm couldn't remember it very clearly. "Wait, they don't care about her at all? Is Linnet–" He wanted to say one of you, but that sounded vaguely judgemental, so he hastily changed it to "like you" at the very last minute.

There were rumours about what happened to the girl; some say she died, while others said it was all a ruse by the Ministry. "Calm down." He advised gravely, casting a surreptitious glance around them to make sure no one was listening. Thankfully, the place was still rather empty. "So she's still alive? How is she? Have you been to see her yet?" There was a touch of concern that wouldn't have been there just a year ago. After all, they spent the last year in school as co-prefects, and they survived the dome together; Camm liked to think that they were closer because of that. Carefully, he placed a firm hand on his friend's shoulder, wishing there was more he could do.

As he continued struggling to control the rage that had built up inside him, Kyle focused on his breathing. The deep breathing exercises he had learned in the training sessions he attended before attempting his first morph coming in handy now that he needed to focus on control more than ever. The last time he had become an emotional time bomb he had found that he lost control much more easily. He was not necessarily more prone to rage attacks, although those had happened, but he found he couldn’t control the quality of his magic, or couldn’t stop himself from accidentally causing something to happen around him. The deep breaths he took helped him focus on the conversation at hand, the fact that Camm was here as a friend, to help him out in a hard time. The council didn’t mean anything because, to Camm it wasn’t anything. There was no need to focus on the negative, slow response that they weren’t taking. All that mattered was him, Camm and the greasy bar they were drinking at.

Camm finished his first drink and ordered another round. Even though Kyle normally wasn’t a heavy drinker, today wasn’t a normal day. Signaling for his third, Kyle watched the bar keep fill Camm’s and his drinks while listening to Camm’s questions about the elemental council. It was only then that Kyle realized what he had done to his friend. He had just started a whole tirade on the council, the elementals and everything else without even making sure that they had a common understanding of things. This was the first time Kyle was talking to Camm at length since telling him he was an elemental. He certainly didn’t remember everything and probably still had questions about the council and the way things worked. Taking a moment, he thought over the questions and wondered how much he should tell him regarding the elementals and their ways.

Deciding it was for the best, Kyle smiled at his friend of so many years and waited for a pause. “For starters, yes the Council is something like a Wizengamot and Ministry of Magic all rolled into one. Each element has a Harbinger who represents the element in matters for the council. For your second question, the short answer is yes. Linnet is one of me, like me, however you want to put it. We are both Madin, it means earth elemental wizards. We can control the earth and plants and such.”

Breathing deeply again, Kyle sipped once more on his fire whiskey before turning back to his friend. Nodding at his caution Camm threw his way, Kyle was unconcerned in reality. Nobody was around and it was unlikely any of this would make sense to them in any case. “Yes, she is most certainly alive. She is in a state that we call a morph. It is how we recharge, how we heal. It is a process that keeps us alive and connected to our element. I have been to see her several times, but when I go, it all feels so much more real. I feel like a failure. I couldn’t do anything to protect her, I can’t do anything to help her, and nobody else seems to be doing anything either. I know it sounds dumb, but I just feel so helpless.” Dangerously close to breaking down again, Kyle took another gulp of his drink. It was then that he felt Camm’s hand come to rest on his shoulder. The simple gesture meant more to Kyle than he could possibly put into words. Camm had no stake in this fight, but he was here, with Kyle because they were friends. He knew he had someone on his team, even if the council wasn’t. 

Smiling back at Camm once more as a way to say thanks, Kyle wiped the beginning of a tear from his eye and looked away, trying to hide his show of emotion. Realizing he had yet to ask about Camm, he shook his head, clearing it momentarily and looked back at the other boy. “I am sorry, I’ve been so selfish. How are you doing? What’s the paper got you running down these days?” Kyle’s interest was genuine. He had heard Camm was working for the Prophet, yet he never really knew what the inner workings of the paper were. While he wasn’t trying to shut Camm out from asking more questions, he hoped that the momentary change of pace would lift the mood of the conversation, even if just only a little.

Normally Camm didn't drink much. He wasn't the kind of person who'd rally all his friends to go on pub crawls, and he preferred spending his nights in rather than out, but he felt like the situation at hand warranted a couple of drinks. He was no longer the meek, stuttering fourth year who was scared of everything, but he wasn't someone who could comfortably open up at any time either. It was something he was still working on, but sweeping everything under the rug had always been his reflex response to anything, and it was difficult to get out of the habit. He was glad that he didn't have any life-shattering secrets like Kyle, who had to hide his true self from everyone. His past with Bruce was hard to deal with, but he had Caoimhe. He supposed Kyle had Linnet too. Had.

He sat up a little straighter when Kyle had apparently finished gathering his thoughts. For just a moment, he had a flash of nostalgia, as if he were back in Hogwarts again, waiting for a professor to call on him and answer a question. "Right. You're both elementals. Of the earth." Camm nodded solemnly, trying to digest this piece of information. He couldn't believe he spent the better part of his life not knowing about something like this. How many more elementals had there been in school with him anyway? He wanted to ask, but it felt rude to interrupt. Kyle probably needed to tell someone who wasn't an elemental, an outsider, about all this. He didn't mind being someone his friend could vent to.

"She's still alive? That's a relief. So I guess the rumours of her turning into a tree were not unfounded after all. At least she's still relatively safe." He sighed, "Don't beat yourself up. You weren't there, it was unprecedented, no one could've known that this was what was going to happen." Camm had never been good at comforting people, but he had to try his best. He gave his friend's shoulder a gentle squeeze, and patted him on his back sympathetically. He hoped he would never have to go through something like that again; he knew how helpless it felt to have a loved one in danger just a hair's breadth from you, and not being able to do anything to remedy the situation, so he could understand what his friend was going through at the moment.

Giving Kyle an encouraging smile and pretending not to notice his stray tear, Camm turned back to the bar to continue working on his beer. It was darker than what he was used to, but it provided a nice distraction when things got too heavy. "That's all anyone can ask me about recently it seems," He chuckled, setting his beer down on the counter, "If they knew you were here, I'd have been tapped by some eavesdropping spell or something. The Prophet is always eager to get some fresh new scoop." And if word about elementals got out, who knew how you be framed in the public eye. Camm kept that thought to himself. They were all there, and news was one of the easiest ways to vilify someone. People, muggles and wizards alike, were always quick to condemn what they didn't understand. Call him paranoid, but there was nothing wrong to be too careful; with the controversy surrounding Harry Potter over, the uppers were probably itching for some new story to shake the wizarding community.

"I've been fine though. Being a photographer is relatively easy money for me, so I really shouldn't be complaining." He gave the other man a wry smile. "I have a girlfriend now. Isla, she's in our year, I dunno how familiar you are with her." Camm left it at that. He didn't feel right talking about her now, almost as if he was flaunting his own happiness while Linnet was still in dire condition. The offer that they should all get together sometime was swallowed back as well. "I hope you're not breaking the equivalent of the Statute of Secrecy or something, tell me these things. I don't think I want to know how Obliviate feels like." That was mostly a joke, but there was an element of truth in it. He sincerely hoped Kyle being here didn't put him at risk. "Tell me more about the council. That is, if you want to."

The mood of the two boy’s catching up was anything from what one would expect from two lifelong friends getting together for the first time in more than six months. The two had been closer for Kyle’s first six years at Hogwarts, sharing a dormitory room, classes, space in the common room and even some futile attempts to help each other out with homework that often ended in joking, a trip to the kitchens or something other than homework. Camm had always been there for Kyle, but after that last year at Hogwarts, a repeating of his sixth year, Kyle and Camm had drifted apart somewhat. It was good to be back with Camm, to be able to catch up with him but the tone of their conversation was one that was foreign, uncommon, different from what they knew and had grown comfortable with. It was the same tone Kyle had had during his post Battle of Hogwarts chats with Camm. Those had been darker, more emotional, and yet somewhat cathartic. It was good to get things off his mind, off his chest. This time together was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Kyle nodded as Camm connected all the dots and the reality of everything he had been saying washed over his friend. Camm might have been getting stuck on the wrong pieces of information, but at least he was keeping up better than Kyle had originally expected. At Camm’s next question, Kyle paused. He didn’t know how to respond to this particular piece of information. He had already exposed so much of the elemental order to Camm; at some risk to himself. The council guarded their secrets very closely and for some reason he doubted that lifelong friendship was a cause for breaking the oaths and vows he had made to the council during his initialization. “Yes” he said after his pause. “She is most certainly alive. She lives at our home in Scotland. And she is safe. We have members of the Council who take care of her and are trying to help her recover from her state.” Kyle hoped he was vague enough. Camm might have known some of the things about being an elemental, but he wasn’t sure that telling him everything was in anyone’s best interest.

Acknowledging Camm’s hand on his shoulder with an attempted smile but shook his head all the same. “I am not beating myself up, I have already done that. I should have known what was going on. I should have been there to protect her. Linnet and I had something special. I failed her, I should have been more insistent, I should have protected her.” Kyle stopped himself there. It was an awkward place to stop, but he had almost revealed the power of the protective runes he had once thought to offer to Linnet. Not for fear of reprisal, Kyle still wasn’t sure he wanted to spend the time explaining the complexities of runic wards to Camm, especially after three fire whiskeys. He was glad when Camm started to answer his questions about life at the paper.

Kyle knew that the whole of the wizarding world was keeping taps on the alleged murder at Hogwarts. He had been using the paper as one of his many sources of information during his time spent at the Council. He needed the information from the outside world, but the council didn’t seem to be very interested in any of the goings on outside the walls. He was somewhat shocked though to hear his friend speak so honestly about the attempts people would make to get the information from him. At the mention of an eavesdropping spell, Kyle’s stomach did a back flip. He had no way to protect himself from any kind of magical attempts to listen to their conversation. He had stopped carrying a wand the day he had left Hogwarts, and even if he had it, there would be nothing he could do.
Deciding to let Camm finish filling him in on the rest of his life since Hogwarts, he followed up as soon as Camm had stopped talking, “You know I trust you Camm, but there isn’t anyone listening in on us, is there?” He knew that Camm would never do that to him, but he had to be sure, there was just so much he didn’t want getting out to the wizarding public as a whole. In an effort to show that he trusted Camm even before he had a chance to answer, Kyle continued on. “I’m not sure I do know Isla. The name sounds familiar but I just don’t know. I spent so much time trying to keep up with classes, extra studies and Linnet that I hardly noticed anyone that didn’t live within the confines of our little dorm room. I am sure that if she got to you though, she must be especially lovely, or just that charming. I never really saw you as finding the right person. I still remember the stumbling, stuttering kid who I met our first night in the dorms.” Kyle suppressed a laugh. It wasn’t right to make fun, but he hoped that Camm would understand it was more for nostalgia than anything else.

Carrying on, Kyle addressed his next concern, secrecy. “Actually yes, there is something of a statute of secrecy, but it is more a guideline than anything else. Wizards and witches marry into elemental families somewhat regularly; but even if it were a hard and fast rule, I wouldn’t obliviate you. It might even be more fair to say, I couldn’t obliviate you. I don’t have a wand and haven’t been able to cast a spell with one for years anyhow. It is a side effect of our training. While we are younger, even up to the point now where I am about to become a full member of the council, we lose the ability to cast magic with wands, all but the simplest of spells.” He knew Camm must have seen how much he struggled in Charms and Transfiguration, and everyone had been abuzz with Linnet dropping out of Transfiguration before taking the OWL in it.  Hopefully Camm would take this, and move on, if not, he might have to show him a rune or two to explain himself more fully. Taking another break to sip on his fire whiskey, Kyle waited for the next barrage of questions he was sure was coming his way. Even if it wasn’t exactly what he had come here to do, it was helping him to keep his mind off Linnet, and that was something he had set out to do.