Elijah Fitzroy Grimlish was so very excited about life. Things were finally looking up for him. No longer was he the annoying creepy boy that liked the nighttime and bats and vampires, now he was the starting Beater for the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team and the president of the Divination Club. He was starting to get friends and people that he’d never even seen before were calling him out in the great hall, just to chat with him. It was certainly an experience.

He had been in a euphoric mood all week and as he walked around the halls of the castle handing out fliers for the last divination club meeting until after the holidays, there was a slight bounce in his step. He was bundled up pretty tightly, because even though he was inside, the halls of Hogwarts were extremely drafty. His lofty baritone carried across the busy corridor, calling out for people to take his flier, for them to attend his meeting, promising there would be loads of fun. Of course there would be fun, anything Eli did was fun and he was going to make sure that everyone that attended had fun as well!

He had already handed out a fair bit of the colorful papers, but he was determined not to leave until he had given away every single one. Sure the caretaker might come kill him later for all the parchment littering the halls, but why worry about things that haven’t happened yet? He walked right up to someone walking the opposite way and tapped them on the shoulder, “Hey!” He said, grinning broadly, “You should totally come to our next Divination Club meeting! We’re going to have refreshments and everything!”

Leo wasn’t sure if he liked Hogwarts yet. It seemed so brutish compared to Beauxbatons, which was a plus. However, it was also something that made the school feel like it wasn’t quite as professional as it should be for being so renowned. It was a nice change, but it also made him wonder if the Hogwartians faced less severe punishments for misbehaving, or if they got away with misbehaving more than students from Beauxbatons did. Another thing that intrigued him was the school’s lack of focus on the arts—how were students supposed to express themselves? Not that he cared if they expressed themselves or not, but it was a thought that ran through his head every now and then.

He was bundled up in several layers of clothes that were a bit too short on him to counteract the draftiness of the hallways. His originally black jacket was faded to a dark grey, and had a few areas that were patched up by someone who looked like he (or she) had experience with that sort of thing. He was about to hide in an empty classroom to sneak a few drags off of a cigarette before continuing on his way (because the outdoors were too cold for his liking.)  He passed by someone, not really paying attention to who it was when--

“Hey! You should totally come to our next Divination Club meeting! We’re going to have refreshments and everything!”

Leo turned around only to see a familiar face. Oh yes, it was one of the Hogwarts students. Leo shared a few classes with him, but never made a point to engage in conversation. He raised a dark eyebrow and glanced at the flier. Divination club. That seemed mildly interesting. And the promise of food and refreshments wasn’t something he would so readily ignore.

He gave Elijah a hard look and squinted his eyes. Why the hell did this guy have such a similar face? It was eerie. “Who are you?” He asked harshly, speaking with an accent that was difficult to place—one gained from being raised by a Spanish woman while going to a French-speaking school.

When the boy turned to face Eli, his hand almost dropped the stack of parchment which would have been very bad, very bad indeed. As it was, Eli’s hand shot out and started probing the boy’s face, so very much like his own. His mouth was open in pure shock and he looked the boy up and down quickly, trying to take in all the ways in which they were not alike. Slowly it dawned on the Ravenclaw that this was obviously not some creepy mirror magic or polyjuice and he withdrew quickly.

His mind finally catching up with him, Eli recognized the shabby appearance as one of the Salem kids that he avoided, like all the other foreigners. He had never actually gotten a close up look at the boy, even though they’d shared quite a few courses over the term. “Uh… sorry ‘bout that,” Eli said taking a couple quick steps back, in case the boy reacted badly to his manhandling.

“I’m Elijah Grimlish,” He said in response to the boy’s snarky accented question, “And who’re you?” He asked in return, curiosity tainting his attempted carefree tone.

Obviously, the other kid seemed to notice how alike they looked-- and he seemed juat as surprised. There probably wasn’t any sort of weird transfiguration magic or polyjuice potion going on. Elijah looked a bit more... Girly compared to Leo, but maybe that was just Leo’s way of making himself feel a bit better, his way of trying to find specific differences between the two. In his response to his question, that kid had the absolute nerve to touch his freakin’ face. Leo stared at Elijah incredulously for a few minutes, as if the touching had stunned him.

Then he came to his senses.

Leo smacked Elijah’s left ear roughly, though not hard enough to cause any damage. “Don’t touch me!” He said sharply, as if scolding a dog who was misbehaving. That was not how you introduced yourself to people, and Eli needed to know that such behavior was unwelcome.

Were all Hogwarts students like this?

He let out an exasperated sigh. Really? This kid was sorry? He better have been sorry, invading space like that. “My name’s Leonardo Duarte.” Leo replied carefully, taking a step away from Elijah. He liked his personal space. “Leo.”  He glanced at the papers, “What is..?” He motioned towards the flier with his hand questioningly. The Hogwarts student wanted something, obviously.

(edit because I accidentally a word)