All You Can Be
Title: All You Can Be
Genre: Drama/Fluff
Pairing(s): USUK
Word Count: 2,179
Rating/Warnings: 12, none
Summary: Arthur sees a mother and her new babies while Alfred confronts him about his strategy of running away at the first sign of trouble. Harry Potter AU. First part. Done for the 'animals' prompt of the usxuk summer camp.
Arthur shot down to Hagrid's house at a run after lessons ended early that Friday afternoon. Alfred had been trying to talk to him all week but after his annoying friends had started to ridicule Arthur for the way his uniform was always correctly worn (as if they could not find anything else), Arthur had wanted to avoid any Gryffindor students. Former Gryffindors however, he could handle.
"Mornin' Arthur," Hagrid greeted, his eyes warm underneath all his thick black hair. Arthur smiled slightly.
"Hello Professor. How has your week been?" Arthur asked politely, stepping closer to Hagrid's cabin. Hagrid and Fang always made Arthur feel welcome and he truly enjoyed coming down to visit them. That Hagrid knew all the creatures in the forest back to front was an extra bonus.
"It's bin fine Arthur. And I thought I told yer that you can call me Hagrid. Ev'rybody does," Hagrid smiled as Arthur knelt down slightly to pet Fang as he came pounding around from behind the cabin.
"It took you so long to become a Professor, I thought it better if I gave you the respect you earned. I have to give it to teachers who didn't earn it all the time," Arthur sneered at the thought of Lockhart, the DADA teacher two years ago. The moron had been an idiot at best and he had been much too friendly with Alfred for some reason. Luckily Alfred had seen right through him.
"Ah, well," Hagrid blustered but Arthur could see his cheeks turning pink. He had managed to befriend Hagrid in his first year, because, even though he was from the hated Slytherin house, he had managed to befriend one of the unicorns of the forest. Seeing this, Hagrid had immediately come around and had started to chat to Arthur every time the student came to visit him.
"How's Marley been?" Arthur asked as gave Fang one last pat on his head and resisted the urge to clean his robes of drool. He could do it later where he would not offend Hagrid. Hagrid's face widened into a smile.
"She 'ad foals over the summer," he announced proudly, like he was a father announcing the birth of his own child. Arthur's eyes widened. That was definitely unexpected, and pleasing, news.
"She had foals? Really? While I was stuck at home with my stupid family?! Can you take me to see her?" Arthur asked Hagrid, feeling more alert than he had all day. Hagrid laughed and nodded. He strode off towards the forest with Arthur following fearlessly behind. No one could get hurt in the Forest with Hagrid there. "So how have classes been?"
"I showed Harry's class the Blast-Ended Shrewts!" Hagrid answered enthusiastically and Arthur frowned slightly as he tried to remember where he had heard the name before. "They din't seem to like 'em much," Hagrid added, a little more sadly. Realisation occurred to Arthur.
"Wait, they aren't those Manticore Fire-crab crosses you wrote to me about?" Hagrid looked guilty and kept his head facing forward as they moved deeper into the forest. The chattering of birds and other animals faded into the background as Arthur tried to keep up with Hagrid's strides. "Hagrid," Arthur said with a sigh. "That is illegal breeding. And much too dangerous for fourth years to handle. Maybe seventh years if they want to."
"But they're interesting to learn about!" Hagrid replied earnestly and Arthur nodded unwillingly. He was sure that the fourth years would be glad to learn about the Shrewts - from a distance. Where they could not be injured by them.
"They may be but Hagrid, not everyone is as large as you and has the same protection. What doesn't hurt you can really hurt one of your students and you don't want a incident like with that little brat Malfoy last year." Arthur's lip curled as he thought about the boy two years below him. Draco Malfoy was an arrogant moron who expected everyone in Slytherin to be impressed at the Malfoy name. Arthur delighted in hexing Malfoy at least once a week to bring him down a peg or two.
"I suppose," Hagrid said with a disappointed voice. Arthur tried not to feel guilty, he wanted Hagrid to stay as Care of Magical Creatures Professor. No one knew more than him about the animals. "Do yer think th' class'll like it if I could git a unicorn?" Hagrid asked Arthur thoughtfully and Arthur nodded his head vigorously. After the Shrewts, he thought the class would welcome anything that did not try and kill them. "Almos' there." Arthur held his breath as he stepped into a small clearing. On the opposite side Marley stood, her coat as gleaming white as always, but now with two golden foals. Marley eyed the two of them but as they just stood there, she continued to feed while the foals frolicked around her. One foal sniffed enquiringly at Arthur's robes and he smiled, before offering a sugar lump. Marley and the foal both jumped when he moved but the foal ate the lump eagerly while Marley gave Arthur a long-suffering look about her greedy offspring.
"What do you think we should name them?" Arthur breathed to Hagrid who was feeding an apple to a suspicious Marley.
"I was thinkin' about Star for th' girl and Johnny fo' the boy. We'll hav' ter ask them when they're older," Hagrid answered, giving the little boy unicorn a pat. Arthur nodded and Marley whinnied in agreement. It was no good giving a unicorn a name if the unicorn didn't like it.
Suddenly Marley raised her head and her ears pricked up. Before Arthur could even register what was going on, Marley had gathered her two foals and they had moved away faster than any other animal. What had scared them became very obvious when Hagrid and Arthur heard someone tramping towards them. Soon enough, Alfred's face peered into the clearing.
"Oh. It's you," Arthur said sourly. Getting a angry Alfred in exchange for Marley and her foals seemed like a very poor trade. Hagrid glanced between the two boys with his eyebrows raised and seemingly at a loss for words.
"What are you doing in here for? I saw you go in," Alfred said, gesturing to the edge of the forest. Although he seemed to be asking the question to Hagrid and Arthur, his eyes mainly focused on Arthur.
"Just lookin' at one o' the unicorns tha' has 'ad foals," Hagrid answered when he realised that Arthur was not going to. Alfred looked interested and he searched the clearing as if Marley and her foals would be hiding in the bushes.
"You scared her away," Arthur pointed out with no little resentment, before brushing past Alfred and walking back up to the castle. "See you Professor," Arthur called back and he heard Hagrid's answering grunt. This was soon covered by Alfred's loud movements through the forest as he followed Arthur.
"I didn't mean to scare them away," Alfred said in an apologetic voice.
"I know you didn't," Arthur replied, keeping his head forward. Alfred would not hurt or scare an innocent animal on purpose but he could be careless sometimes. They reached the edge of the forest with only a few scattered trees hiding Hogwarts from view when Alfred grabbed Arthur's arm, halting Arthur in his tracks.
"I'm glad I got to talk to you though. You've been avoiding me," Alfred accused and Arthur shot him a glare. If Alfred was just going to keep him there just to insult him, then Arthur had far better things to be doing. Alfred looked uncomfortable now, shuffling from one foot to the next. "I didn't say thanks for the robes because Matthew told me to, I said thank you because I hoped that you mending my robes meant that you wanted to be friends again." Now Arthur was stunned.
"What?" He asked in shock and Alfred frowned but did not repeat himself. It didn't matter, Arthur had heard him perfectly. "Become friends with you again? Why would you want to become friends with me? After all aren't I a 'stupid, controlling freak'?" As Arthur shot Alfred's own words back at him, Alfred shuffled even more and looked down at his feet. Arthur felt a sick sense of satisfaction as well as the feeling of bile coming up his throat after remembering the worst day of his entire life. "And why would I want to become friends with someone that thinks I'm a 'Death Eater in training'? I'm not a masochist, go and find someone else to hurt." With these words said, Arthur marched off with his head held high. It still hurt when Alfred didn't argue with him.
"Arthur, don't you dare run away again!" Arthur froze on the edge of the Forest and turned back to Alfred with wide eyes. The other boy jogged so he was in front of him and he looked.. different. The expression on his face was intense and serious and Arthur didn't think he had ever seen Alfred with that expression before. "I want you to listen to me. You've been avoiding me and running away as soon as I start to talk to you. I'm fed up of it!" Arthur scowled but found himself frozen in place.
"Alright," Arthur said frostily, crossing his arms. "I'm listening." Alfred's face lost a little of its edge, now he just looked slightly nervous but resolute.
"Okay. When we had that fight last year, I did mean some of the stuff I said. No wait, don't go, I haven't finished." Alfred had to speak because Arthur had started to turn his face away. "I meant the stuff about letting me be my own person. You can't just tell me what to do all the time, you can say what I'm doing is stupid or crazy but you have to let me make my own mistakes, yeah?" Arthur nodded reluctantly. He still felt tense and slightly teary as well but he stood and waited for Alfred to say what he wanted to say. "But it was really cruel of me to say all those horrible things and in front of the whole school as well. I was sorry for that practically straight after I said it but I thought you wouldn't like to talk to me so I just didn't talk to you until I thought you had enough time to cool off. But then the time got longer and longer apart and I couldn't find a way to start being friends with you again and you seemed to be hanging out with all those other people and you didn't need or want me..." Alfred trailed off and shuffled awkwardly, looking down at the leaf litter. Arthur felt like he had been hit by a Beater bat. On the head. Repeatedly. How could he, they, be so wrong?
"You idiot," Arthur whispered in shock and Alfred looked at him with an almost-hopeful expression. "I thought... I thought... Why the hell did you wait so long?" Arthur was well aware that his voice had gone higher than he would normally allow it and Alfred was looking at him in surprise.
"Because I thought you didn't want me to?" Alfred replied, his answer somewhat hesitant as if wondering if that was the right one. All Arthur could think about was all those evenings that he had spent alone and missing Alfred and his other friends. He had completely blamed himself for driving them away, he had thought he had been such a horrible person that no one wanted to be friends with him. He was about to berate Alfred for thinking such a thing but caught himself just in time. Neither of them wanted one of their arguments, just when they were about to be friends again.
"I'm sorry," Arthur said in a quiet voice. The statement made Alfred's mouth drop open and Arthur smiled at the sight before sobering quickly so he could say what he needed to say, no matter how uncomfortable it was. "I'm sorry. You were right, I was controlling. I'll try and stop it but you'll have to tell me when I'm doing it. Just preferably not in front of the whole school." Alfred smiled at Arthur's, admittedly weak, joke. "Friends again?" Arthur asked, trying not to reveal how much he wanted the answer to be yes. He stuck out a hand for Alfred to shake but instead the other boy pulled up into a hug.
"Friends," Alfred said happily against Arthur's shoulder as he squeezed him around the middle. Arthur put one arm around Alfred's shoulder to return the hug, unable to repress his smile. Alfred raised his head from Arthur as a thought occurred to him. "Can you show me the unicorn an' her foals?"
"Maybe some other time," Arthur said in a calm voice as he let go of Alfred. He would have to introduce Alfred to Marley. It would be interesting to see what she made of him.
Had some of this written as soon as the summer camp started. Hope that magical creatures still count as animals. Thank you for your comments!
Genre: Drama/Fluff
Pairing(s): USUK
Word Count: 2,179
Rating/Warnings: 12, none
Summary: Arthur sees a mother and her new babies while Alfred confronts him about his strategy of running away at the first sign of trouble. Harry Potter AU. First part. Done for the 'animals' prompt of the usxuk summer camp.
Arthur shot down to Hagrid's house at a run after lessons ended early that Friday afternoon. Alfred had been trying to talk to him all week but after his annoying friends had started to ridicule Arthur for the way his uniform was always correctly worn (as if they could not find anything else), Arthur had wanted to avoid any Gryffindor students. Former Gryffindors however, he could handle.
"Mornin' Arthur," Hagrid greeted, his eyes warm underneath all his thick black hair. Arthur smiled slightly.
"Hello Professor. How has your week been?" Arthur asked politely, stepping closer to Hagrid's cabin. Hagrid and Fang always made Arthur feel welcome and he truly enjoyed coming down to visit them. That Hagrid knew all the creatures in the forest back to front was an extra bonus.
"It's bin fine Arthur. And I thought I told yer that you can call me Hagrid. Ev'rybody does," Hagrid smiled as Arthur knelt down slightly to pet Fang as he came pounding around from behind the cabin.
"It took you so long to become a Professor, I thought it better if I gave you the respect you earned. I have to give it to teachers who didn't earn it all the time," Arthur sneered at the thought of Lockhart, the DADA teacher two years ago. The moron had been an idiot at best and he had been much too friendly with Alfred for some reason. Luckily Alfred had seen right through him.
"Ah, well," Hagrid blustered but Arthur could see his cheeks turning pink. He had managed to befriend Hagrid in his first year, because, even though he was from the hated Slytherin house, he had managed to befriend one of the unicorns of the forest. Seeing this, Hagrid had immediately come around and had started to chat to Arthur every time the student came to visit him.
"How's Marley been?" Arthur asked as gave Fang one last pat on his head and resisted the urge to clean his robes of drool. He could do it later where he would not offend Hagrid. Hagrid's face widened into a smile.
"She 'ad foals over the summer," he announced proudly, like he was a father announcing the birth of his own child. Arthur's eyes widened. That was definitely unexpected, and pleasing, news.
"She had foals? Really? While I was stuck at home with my stupid family?! Can you take me to see her?" Arthur asked Hagrid, feeling more alert than he had all day. Hagrid laughed and nodded. He strode off towards the forest with Arthur following fearlessly behind. No one could get hurt in the Forest with Hagrid there. "So how have classes been?"
"I showed Harry's class the Blast-Ended Shrewts!" Hagrid answered enthusiastically and Arthur frowned slightly as he tried to remember where he had heard the name before. "They din't seem to like 'em much," Hagrid added, a little more sadly. Realisation occurred to Arthur.
"Wait, they aren't those Manticore Fire-crab crosses you wrote to me about?" Hagrid looked guilty and kept his head facing forward as they moved deeper into the forest. The chattering of birds and other animals faded into the background as Arthur tried to keep up with Hagrid's strides. "Hagrid," Arthur said with a sigh. "That is illegal breeding. And much too dangerous for fourth years to handle. Maybe seventh years if they want to."
"But they're interesting to learn about!" Hagrid replied earnestly and Arthur nodded unwillingly. He was sure that the fourth years would be glad to learn about the Shrewts - from a distance. Where they could not be injured by them.
"They may be but Hagrid, not everyone is as large as you and has the same protection. What doesn't hurt you can really hurt one of your students and you don't want a incident like with that little brat Malfoy last year." Arthur's lip curled as he thought about the boy two years below him. Draco Malfoy was an arrogant moron who expected everyone in Slytherin to be impressed at the Malfoy name. Arthur delighted in hexing Malfoy at least once a week to bring him down a peg or two.
"I suppose," Hagrid said with a disappointed voice. Arthur tried not to feel guilty, he wanted Hagrid to stay as Care of Magical Creatures Professor. No one knew more than him about the animals. "Do yer think th' class'll like it if I could git a unicorn?" Hagrid asked Arthur thoughtfully and Arthur nodded his head vigorously. After the Shrewts, he thought the class would welcome anything that did not try and kill them. "Almos' there." Arthur held his breath as he stepped into a small clearing. On the opposite side Marley stood, her coat as gleaming white as always, but now with two golden foals. Marley eyed the two of them but as they just stood there, she continued to feed while the foals frolicked around her. One foal sniffed enquiringly at Arthur's robes and he smiled, before offering a sugar lump. Marley and the foal both jumped when he moved but the foal ate the lump eagerly while Marley gave Arthur a long-suffering look about her greedy offspring.
"What do you think we should name them?" Arthur breathed to Hagrid who was feeding an apple to a suspicious Marley.
"I was thinkin' about Star for th' girl and Johnny fo' the boy. We'll hav' ter ask them when they're older," Hagrid answered, giving the little boy unicorn a pat. Arthur nodded and Marley whinnied in agreement. It was no good giving a unicorn a name if the unicorn didn't like it.
Suddenly Marley raised her head and her ears pricked up. Before Arthur could even register what was going on, Marley had gathered her two foals and they had moved away faster than any other animal. What had scared them became very obvious when Hagrid and Arthur heard someone tramping towards them. Soon enough, Alfred's face peered into the clearing.
"Oh. It's you," Arthur said sourly. Getting a angry Alfred in exchange for Marley and her foals seemed like a very poor trade. Hagrid glanced between the two boys with his eyebrows raised and seemingly at a loss for words.
"What are you doing in here for? I saw you go in," Alfred said, gesturing to the edge of the forest. Although he seemed to be asking the question to Hagrid and Arthur, his eyes mainly focused on Arthur.
"Just lookin' at one o' the unicorns tha' has 'ad foals," Hagrid answered when he realised that Arthur was not going to. Alfred looked interested and he searched the clearing as if Marley and her foals would be hiding in the bushes.
"You scared her away," Arthur pointed out with no little resentment, before brushing past Alfred and walking back up to the castle. "See you Professor," Arthur called back and he heard Hagrid's answering grunt. This was soon covered by Alfred's loud movements through the forest as he followed Arthur.
"I didn't mean to scare them away," Alfred said in an apologetic voice.
"I know you didn't," Arthur replied, keeping his head forward. Alfred would not hurt or scare an innocent animal on purpose but he could be careless sometimes. They reached the edge of the forest with only a few scattered trees hiding Hogwarts from view when Alfred grabbed Arthur's arm, halting Arthur in his tracks.
"I'm glad I got to talk to you though. You've been avoiding me," Alfred accused and Arthur shot him a glare. If Alfred was just going to keep him there just to insult him, then Arthur had far better things to be doing. Alfred looked uncomfortable now, shuffling from one foot to the next. "I didn't say thanks for the robes because Matthew told me to, I said thank you because I hoped that you mending my robes meant that you wanted to be friends again." Now Arthur was stunned.
"What?" He asked in shock and Alfred frowned but did not repeat himself. It didn't matter, Arthur had heard him perfectly. "Become friends with you again? Why would you want to become friends with me? After all aren't I a 'stupid, controlling freak'?" As Arthur shot Alfred's own words back at him, Alfred shuffled even more and looked down at his feet. Arthur felt a sick sense of satisfaction as well as the feeling of bile coming up his throat after remembering the worst day of his entire life. "And why would I want to become friends with someone that thinks I'm a 'Death Eater in training'? I'm not a masochist, go and find someone else to hurt." With these words said, Arthur marched off with his head held high. It still hurt when Alfred didn't argue with him.
"Arthur, don't you dare run away again!" Arthur froze on the edge of the Forest and turned back to Alfred with wide eyes. The other boy jogged so he was in front of him and he looked.. different. The expression on his face was intense and serious and Arthur didn't think he had ever seen Alfred with that expression before. "I want you to listen to me. You've been avoiding me and running away as soon as I start to talk to you. I'm fed up of it!" Arthur scowled but found himself frozen in place.
"Alright," Arthur said frostily, crossing his arms. "I'm listening." Alfred's face lost a little of its edge, now he just looked slightly nervous but resolute.
"Okay. When we had that fight last year, I did mean some of the stuff I said. No wait, don't go, I haven't finished." Alfred had to speak because Arthur had started to turn his face away. "I meant the stuff about letting me be my own person. You can't just tell me what to do all the time, you can say what I'm doing is stupid or crazy but you have to let me make my own mistakes, yeah?" Arthur nodded reluctantly. He still felt tense and slightly teary as well but he stood and waited for Alfred to say what he wanted to say. "But it was really cruel of me to say all those horrible things and in front of the whole school as well. I was sorry for that practically straight after I said it but I thought you wouldn't like to talk to me so I just didn't talk to you until I thought you had enough time to cool off. But then the time got longer and longer apart and I couldn't find a way to start being friends with you again and you seemed to be hanging out with all those other people and you didn't need or want me..." Alfred trailed off and shuffled awkwardly, looking down at the leaf litter. Arthur felt like he had been hit by a Beater bat. On the head. Repeatedly. How could he, they, be so wrong?
"You idiot," Arthur whispered in shock and Alfred looked at him with an almost-hopeful expression. "I thought... I thought... Why the hell did you wait so long?" Arthur was well aware that his voice had gone higher than he would normally allow it and Alfred was looking at him in surprise.
"Because I thought you didn't want me to?" Alfred replied, his answer somewhat hesitant as if wondering if that was the right one. All Arthur could think about was all those evenings that he had spent alone and missing Alfred and his other friends. He had completely blamed himself for driving them away, he had thought he had been such a horrible person that no one wanted to be friends with him. He was about to berate Alfred for thinking such a thing but caught himself just in time. Neither of them wanted one of their arguments, just when they were about to be friends again.
"I'm sorry," Arthur said in a quiet voice. The statement made Alfred's mouth drop open and Arthur smiled at the sight before sobering quickly so he could say what he needed to say, no matter how uncomfortable it was. "I'm sorry. You were right, I was controlling. I'll try and stop it but you'll have to tell me when I'm doing it. Just preferably not in front of the whole school." Alfred smiled at Arthur's, admittedly weak, joke. "Friends again?" Arthur asked, trying not to reveal how much he wanted the answer to be yes. He stuck out a hand for Alfred to shake but instead the other boy pulled up into a hug.
"Friends," Alfred said happily against Arthur's shoulder as he squeezed him around the middle. Arthur put one arm around Alfred's shoulder to return the hug, unable to repress his smile. Alfred raised his head from Arthur as a thought occurred to him. "Can you show me the unicorn an' her foals?"
"Maybe some other time," Arthur said in a calm voice as he let go of Alfred. He would have to introduce Alfred to Marley. It would be interesting to see what she made of him.
Had some of this written as soon as the summer camp started. Hope that magical creatures still count as animals. Thank you for your comments!