Lost Necklace PV Flash Holmwood Closed

As Flash tried to pay attention to the lecture and take his notes, he started to notice the student beside him fidgeting around in his periphery. It was a bit distracting, but she seemed to make an effort to be as silent as she could while rummaging around her things, and leaning back in her seat to scan the floor. Anyone could have sympathized with these actions, she must have misplaced something important and was starting to panic.

He hadn't picked his seat strategically in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, because he didn't know what seat was the strategic one to take. Instead, he simply sat in the front in hopes that it would get him more personal attention from the professor. There were Ravenclaw students on either side of him, which wasn't a surprise knowing their studious reputation. There had been a role call on the first day of class, but memorizing everyone's name in all of his classes was more than he was willing to take on in his first year, and he hadn't yet attempted to talk to any of them-- talking in class was forbidden anyway.

As the class ended and students began to collect their things and file out of the room, the girl stayed behind and doubled to efforts to scour the area. She made no pretense then, and seemed oblivious to outside world. It must have been something dreadfully important. It could be something worth knowing about.

"Excuse me, miss?" Flash stood in the path of her eyeline and waved to get her attention, "Did you drop something? I can help you look if you like."

Flash tried to give a kind, disarming smile.

Shae's hair shortened and stood on end when the boy spoke. Without looking at him, she said, "The necklace my sister got for me." She shook her head. "She would be furious if she knew I lost it." After a moment, she looked up at him. "She's going to hate me for losing it." Shae sighed. "If you could help, that would be great it's just a necklace." She bit her lip and struggled to think of the necklace to describe it. "It's a locket, but there's no picture in it. She didn't want to put one in because she's seven and that's just how she is." Shae rolled her eyes a bit at the thought of that. "It's a gold chain and a silver locket. She got it at some junk store but it was important to her that I have it when I came to school." She pushed a few chairs around, looking underneath them. Tears escaped her eyes as she said, "It might not even be in here. I probably lost it somewhere else in the castle this morning before class and I probably won't be able to find it." She wouldn't look at him because she was crying and she was embarrassed by it.

The moment after Flash had offhandedly offered his help, the girl’s distress grew increasingly more evident. The item was important, at least sentimentally. Her reaction surprised him. He wasn’t sure why, but he wondered if his older sister could treasure something of his like this girl did this necklace. No one in his family was particularly emotive aside from his mother, who expressed her emotions often and loudly. One could say Flash had been quite emotive in the past, but he dropped it when he realized how pointless it was. In reality, if her sister loved her so much, she would eventually forgive her for losing the necklace. He knew that was true, but it still made him feel somewhat sentimental himself to see a girl crying.

”Miss… it’s alright. Don’t give up, we’ll find it.” Flash smiled confidently.

Flash assumed it wouldn’t be too hard to find a locket: the metal would clash with the stone. Given her attachment to it, she would undoubtedly be really grateful. It couldn’t hurt to have someone going around telling people how nice of a guy Flash was. And also, she would stop crying, ideally.

He didn’t wait for her reply to start looking around the room. The gold chain was the most likely thing to pop on the floor, so to begin with he should take a quick sweep around the full floor in case it was somewhere obvious. After that, tracing one’s steps to exactly where they had been to see the most likely areas for it to be dropped in and look around there more carefully.

It was a simple procedure to locate lost items. Flash remembered being patiently taught by his own sister, Marius. She was always so serious-minded, doing things like insisting that he mind his manners in public and teaching him how to keep his composure in difficult situations. For her more than any of his other siblings, the name Holmwood was something to defend and represent. She would become the matriarch of the family after his father passed away despite the fact that she was third born. She had fought for it. She worked harder than her older brothers and cared more. Flash had never once seen her cry about anything, which back when he was growing up, made him jealous of her.

“I have a little brother, actually, he’s six-years-old.” Flash began his search, talking to fill the space. ”He only ever thinks about himself. You’re lucky you have one who cares about you so much.”

Shae looked at him while he scanned the room, grateful for the help. Beginning to calm down, she smiled a bit at his kindness as she continued her search. "Honestly, she's the best. I don't know how I got so lucky to have a sibling that actually loves me." She laughed a bit and her hair went back to normal. She bit her lip as she looked. "I mean she is so caring to everyone and I love that about her." She paused her search for a second. "She's so willing to go out of her way to help people. I mean, I tend to be the same way, so it makes sense." She laughed. "I don't know if we get it from our parents or what." She said as she continued her search. She spoke as she looked: "I mean, my mother definitely has a kind streak and so does my father, but I'm not sure if it's to the same extent as my sister and I." She sighed as she looked under a chair. Shae wondered if the necklace was even in here. She closed her eyes and thought for a moment. She was calming down and trying to clear her thoughts.

The girl’s voice had started to even out as she spoke, no longer pitching nor wavering. Instead her voice grew warmer as she recounted the members of her loving family. As she continued, Flash's mind started to wander towards a kind of self-pitying resentment. It didn't make sense, so he tried to dash away the feeling. His family loved him just fine.

He didn't have much he could honestly complain about: he was given a good education, he was taught social skills, he always ate well and could have nearly anything he wanted if he was willing to 'earn' enough through chores. He couldn't pin down where the feeling came from, or why her fond reminiscing made him feel so lonely.

“Do you think talent is passed down?” Flash spoke, mostly to himself. “Nevermind. Your family sounds nice.”

Flash took pointless cursory glance around the room, trying to get his head back in the right space. My family is nice… Flash’s thoughts were mired, I’m the one who’s no good. Flash thought that being at Hogwarts, far away from his home, would make feelings like that go away. Apparently he was wrong.

“Did you already look through your things? We might have to trace your steps after all.” Flash sighed, still a bit distant.

Shae looked at him as he seemed lost in thought and when he first spoke, she replied, "I do think talent is passed down." She sighed and thought for a second. "I mean, a lot of things are. You know, genetics." She bit her lip. "I mean genetics are weird though because you don't always get traits from your parents. Sometimes traits skip generations." She continued looking. "But with some traits, like friendliness or generosity we get what we get from our ancestors but we create our own unique mix of traits. Good people can create terrible kids and vice versa. Like the most amazing person you know could create the worst person the world's ever seen." Shae shook her head. "But that's not important." When Flash asked about the necklace, Shae stopped. "I'm going to feel like an idiot if it's with my stuff," she said, picking up her things a little too quickly. Something fell to the floor as she did. Shae sighed and sat her stuff back down. "I am such an idiot." She picked up her necklace and put it back around her neck. "Thanks so much for the help, though," she said, walking toward him and extending her arm to shake his hand. "I'm Shae by the way." She smiled at him.

The gold and silver glittered in the light as it left her bag. She had no way of knowing it, but her words hurt his heart. Even the necklace itself almost raised his ire; it was a symbol of something he coveted. He knew better than to take it out on an innocent girl, she wasn’t trying to knock him down a peg, she was just making pleasant conversation. It only emphasized to Flash how important it was to know as much as possible about someone when talking to them-- there were landmines everywhere in conversation, even something as innocuous as niceness.

Even though he could separate his feelings from what she said, he still felt them. Even after resolving to bottle them up and hide them away, they were still inside him. He hated the power they had over him, and how strong they were. Things would be easier if he had no emotions at all.

The Ravenclaw came over to him with her hand outstretched, introducing herself. Flash was a bit bewildered that he had managed to forget to perform even the basest of formalities. He accepted the hand right away.

”Oh, forgive my rudeness, I’m Flash. It’s a pleasure.” He forced a smile. He could only hope that it was convincing. ”I’m glad it wasn’t lost after all, take care of that thing, okay? Now if you don’t mind, I have to put my things away before supper. I’ll be seeing you in class.”

Shae could tell that Flash was bothered and bit her lip. When he took her hand and introduced himself, she felt bad for him. She didn't pity him or anything, she could just see the hurt and could tell he wasn't okay and she felt like she was partially responsible with all of her babbling. As he spoke, she internally debated whether or not she should say something Her mind jumped back and forth whether she should try to continue the conversation or not. She didn't want to push, but she always felt the need to help people. She also didn't want some random boy from class to hate her because she talks too much. Shae was also shy though, and it was hard for her to say anything, but she decided she needed to.
"Hey, Flash. Um, are you okay?" She blurted before she could really stop herself. "I didn't mean what I said. I tend to babble. Talking a lot helps me calm down sometimes actually." She looked down. "I just feel like you're bothered by something and I feel like it was something I said." She touched the necklace and thought for a second. "I really am sorry for that. I don't mean to babble." She looked up at him.

Having started on his way to leave the classroom, he was surprised to be stopped. She apologized, as though she had anything to apologize for. His face must have given everything away and made her think that she said something hurtful. Well, that was true, but it shouldn’t have hurt his feelings. It almost made him glad, though, to have it be noticed. When he had expressed pain and sadness in the past, he would get locked out or shut down. Instead, she was inviting him to express himself. She really was nice, just as she had said.

”I…” Flash started, but he realized that for once he didn’t know what to say. He at least wanted to allay her fears, “It’s okay, it wasn’t anything you said. I was just thinking of something else.”

Flash didn’t really want to bore anyone with his family history, especially given that his feelings about them were a tangled mess. From the outside, his misgivings had no ground to stand on. He couldn’t lie and say they were abusive or neglectful. He knew no one would understand how he could find fault in his upbringing, no one ever did.

”It’s not important. But…” Flash trailed off, but looked her in the eyes, ”Thank you… for worrying about me.”

With that, he ran off, not wanting to wait to see how she would react. He had to be more careful. He had to work on his smile more.