Something to get used to ((Todd))

[darien]

Dare wiggled the fingers on his right hand while staring at the hand. It was weird. Felt weird and looked weird too. While had most certainly could have done a lot worse than loosing just his little finger, the absence of it was still almost too much to fit into his head. Madam Pomfrey was certain that Dare was still in shock because of the attack and the brutality of the Death Eaters. But Dare didn’t think it was shock anymore. He understood that he now owned only 9 fingers and that the change shouldn’t change his life-style awfully much. But Dare wasn’t sure if the fully understood what had happened. It was just weird to look at his hand and the small stump left where his finger used to be. It would make becoming an undercover auror a little bit more difficult as a missing finger was a rather easily distinguishable feature, yet Dare doubted his decision of becoming an auror in the future even less now. So maybe the Death Eaters attack had been good for something after all. As funny as it was to say that too.

Dare shook his head and pulled his hand into a fist before standing out and taking his Gryffindor tie that was hanging on one of the posters of his bed. Throwing it loosely around his neck Dare stepped to the mirror and made sure the tie was neatly tucked under the collar of his shirt, which was half-way unbuttoned anyway so Dare left the tie hanging loosely. Just like he usually preferred to keep it. While the pace of Hogwarts routine had been disturbed school still carried on. Which meant that unless Dare wanted to loose something more than his finger in Potions class tomorrow he would have to get on with the Potions essay he hadn’t even thought of so far. At the worst case he could always skip class even if he would prefer not to do so. There was a pretty girl sitting before him in Potions.

Whistling Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady quietly Dare moved out of the common room and towards the library to find something he could work on. Winking at a fellow Gryffindor girl who he passed at the Fat Lady’s portrait Dare managed to reach the library without too much trouble. Tehre was only one group of fourth year girls to who he winked and stepped closer to in order to praise the beauty of the darling girls. Slipping into the library Dare smiled at madam Pince and offered her a perfectly round and red apple. The librarian still sent her a suspecting look even after accepting the apple so Dare retreated to a corner after finding two potions books he might find useful. Finding his balance so that his chair was swinging on it’s two back feet Dare opened the first book and started to flip through it, using his fingers as bookmarkers when he came across anything that seemed useful at first glance. The only problem with this was that he ran out of fingers a bit too soon. Dare looked at the missing finger on his right hand again and smiled at it a bit awkwardly.

[todd]

Todd exhaled, letting the air escape through gritted teeth, thus making him sound like an angry tea pot. Eh, he kind of looked the same too, even if tea pots didn't have arms, legs, hair... you get my drift. He just felt, well - angry! He had to go to the library and get a book for his damn Potions essay, which had been left off until now. He wouldn't have remembered it if he hadn't seen others working on it when he ventured to the Student Lounge and the reaction it caused could mainly be described as a frenzy. Todd ran out of the Lounge before even sitting, ran to his dorm and well, you know the rest. Attempted to work on it, realized he had to get a stupid book out of the damn library and got...er...angry. Todd ground his teeth and with uncharacteristic ferocity whipped his piece of paper up, crumbled it into a ball and threw it in the garbage can. It burped loudly after "eating" the blank paper.

To put it simply, the library wasn't on Todd's favorite-place-to-go list. Of course he simply couldn't go without it as most of his homework required books but hey, he could still hate being in there. He hated the silence that was enforced by Madam Pince and hated how, in every direction you looked, you would see books. Books here, books there, books everywhere! Todd hated books - the whole lot of them! His parent's hadn't even lightly forced him to read so he grew up thinking it was a waste of time. Being outside was much more fun and it kept him out of the house which, now that he thought about it, was probably the main reason for his escapades outside. And what was more about the library... it smelled funny. Seriously! Todd hated the smell of books too; they never failed to give him a migraine. Ah, well, no matter how much he hated it he couldn't stop himself from going there often for help. And help it did. Today there seemed to be a little stir in the room but that was, of course, usual as most people couldn't keep their mouths shut that long. Todd knew he had trouble doing the same. And as always when entering the library, he looked around for company first. If there was a friend or maybe his girlfriend in there he would join them but if not... on to the books. He didn't have a girlfriend at the moment though, having dumped his last one a few months ago. As for friends... he scanned through all the people sitting there, most of them reading. In the ocean of faces he saw a familiar face... Dare! Todd grinned and made a bee-line toward his dorm mate.

Now, Dare and Todd only talked on occasion, if that. They couldn't exactly be considered "friends" I suppose considering they hardly ever conversed. But Todd knew enough about Dare to like him - and this was an easy escape from his Potions essay, even if it was for a few spare minutes. "Hey Dare," Todd settled heavily into a chair as he greeted the Gryffindor who seemed to be looking down at his hand. Todd looked too and..."Whoa! What... What the hell happened?" He exclaimed, eyes wide as he counted Dare's fingers. One, two, three, four. Four? Todd found himself baffled and lost; what did he miss this time?

[darien]

Dare didn’t want to work on homework right now. He knew he had to because he had put off doing the essay until the last possible moment and that was now. He had to hand it in tomorrow after all and Dare doubted that any excuses would be accepted. Professors weren’t overly charmed if you told them that you didn’t do homework because you found it boring and unnecessary. Which was a shame. Dare learned much better if he could do something practically with his hands. Learn in the course of working so to say. But he wasn’t a professor and so he had to do the boring essays assigned to students so overly often. Shredding a corner of a spare parchment Dare put used the slips of papers as bookmarkers instead of his fingers. He was lacking fingers now after all.

Dare looked up and smiled widely as a dorm-mate plopped down into a seat next to him. “Todd, you look as cheery as ever. The assignment from our lovely Head of house brought you here today?” Dare asked cheerily blinking as Todd asked what had happened his eyes on Dare’s finger. Or the place where his finger should have been, but wasn’t. Dare moved the fingers on his right hand testingly once again, finding the motion odd now that he was missing the smallest finger. “The Death Eater attack. Had a run-in with one of htem. I didn’t get a chance to do much, but…” Dare raised his hand and let Todd inspect it as much as he wanted, “But he got a souvenir from me I suppose. Pomfrey said that she couldn’t reattach the finger either as it was removed with some spell.” Dare put his hand on the finger and stared at it wordlessly for a few moments. He didn’t exactly do much with his small finger so Dare was grateful that he had lost that finger, not a thumb or an index finger. But he still would have preferred to keep all his ten fingers instead of having the small stump on his right hand now where his finger had used to be.

“It doesn’t hurt or anything anymore. And I don’t think it will influence my plan to become an auror one day, but it’s just weird you know? Do look at my hand and not see one of my fingers? It’s kind of like I can’t use the phrase ‘I know it like my hand’ anymore, because my hand isn’t the same anymore. It’s just… odd.” Dare smiled at Todd after his explanation wondering if he would understand what Dare meant.