Friends In High Places

[Cedric Winters]

Midnight was just about to strike, and the normally calm male was pacing along the hardwood floors of the ballroom in a nervous manner. He had committed a horrible and nearly unspeakable crime and now he had to beg forgiveness from the one person he could think who could help him. His hands were crossed behind his back as his green eyes remained fixed on the ground. He was in his usual attire of his Rose Fellowship uniform neat as a pin, which was unkempt by Cedric's standards. His chocolate hair was all that could be seen on the male until he heard the door open. Looking up, Cedric sighed looking at the other Rose Fellowship male enter the moonlit ballroom.

"Zachary. Thank you so much for coming. I know what risk this puts you at."

Zachary had quite the time finding the ballroom, as he had never even thought of it existing. Regardless, he had Cedric's letter tucked in his back pocket, and he looked only slightly shaken up. It was midnight, he wasn't even supposed to be out of bed, what in the world was he going to do if he got detention, his father would kill him in more ways than one. He had standards to up hold, he couldn't just go out sneaking in the middle of the night, but nonetheless when someone needed help, the boy was kind and despite his conflicted interior he did not dare suppress that natural kindness that came.

"Uhm.." He walked up to the older student, "...So what is this all about?" The letters were quite irritatingly, well, secret and he had no idea why he was even here to begin with.

[Cedric Winters]

Cedric hated what he was about to ask Zachary for, but to his knowledge he would be able to help him the most if he could. The last thing he wanted was to upset him in any way, especially since he had pulled his tail out of the fire a few weeks back. The more Cedric seemed to get involved with Zachary, the more he seemed to be indebted to him. Either way Cedric took a deep breath before he started speaking. It wasn't something he wanted to get out to the rest of the student body and it quite frankly wasn't something he'd ever thought he'd say.

"Zachary, I hate to do this to you, but I was hoping you might be able to use your... promoted status in your family to help me. It is embarrassing to admit, but I have broken one of the most serious laws of the magical world in telling a muggle that I am a wizard."

Cedric did his best to remain calm, but visible beads of sweat were forming, and his fingers began to fidget around in an apprehensive manner as he waited for Zachary's reaction.

Zachary stared at Cedric as if he was crazy, or had ten heads. He didn't even associate himself with muggles and while this was some sort of offense, he didn't know what kind off offense or how serious of one it was. That wasn't his future job, and it wasn't his duty to know about all those laws. Though his father knew, and he was pretty sure his oldest brother was well versed as well.

Scratching his head briefly he looked around, as if Cedric had not spoken at all. Before looking back to the boy. "So... How am I supposed to be involved in this?" He asked, looking confused, this was not something that somebody just asked on a daily basis so he didn't know how to react.

[Cedric Winters]

Still apprehensive, Cedric looked to Zachary as if he was being taunted. True Zachary wouldn't do that intentionally, but Cedric didn't want to say it out loud. It seemed the more he said about the situation the worse he felt. Of course it was proper for someone like him to feel that way after breaking one of the most sanctioned laws of the magical world. His emerald eyes remained focused on the boy, but that alone took a herculean effort on his part. He was ashamed of what he did and he was ashamed that he needed to ask for Zachary's help, especially when the younger student had already done so much for him.

"I was hoping that you might be able to put in a good word with your father about me. It will only be a matter of time before someone discovers that I've told a muggle about magic and when that happens retribution will be both swift and harsh, as it has been on any wizard or witch that has failed to keep the secret."

He kept his gaze on the other boy, he really wasn't sure what he wanted and once he finally revealed what he did, Zachary had to resist bursting into laughter. It was midnight, they were supposed to be in bed, he couldn't laugh. So instead, he turned his head away and shook it. "I can't." And it wasn't because, he didn't want to or wouldn't, it was just his father was not a very kind man by nature, and listening to a son was something very below him.

"Father, doesn't tend to listen to me, or any of his children... He has better ways to spend his time, and now that Chr-" He cut off, he didn't need to let the other in on the family problems, clearing his throat he changed the subject. "He's just not a big fan of actually paying attention.. to us.." He tried to reword his point but that didn't seem to be working out well for him either.

[Cedric Winters]

Cedric admittedly couldn't really say he was surprised to hear that answer. After all he was asking for something big, arguably the biggest thing he'd ever ask for in his life. However when Zachary started talking about how his father never paid attention to them Cedric had to look at him questioningly. It was hard to imagine anyone that would ignore their children. Of course Cedric heard of such things, but never could he envision it. He noticed a bit of hesitation when Zachary spoke and he had to do everything not to ask.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Thank you for coming though Zachary."

Zachary nodded, "It's not a problem, but I'm sorry..." He sighed and looked down, feeling a bit conflicted and off beat because he couldn't help someone. He wasn't in any position of power, he was just some rich kid who just happened to get lucky enough that his brother got disowned, which wasn't good at all. He was the second brother in the family, which was the only reason he was going to be in charge of Kennedy Wandmakers and the broomstick company, it was kind of like he was the second resort.

"Sorry, I can't help you.. much.."

[Cedric Winters]

"It's nothing you have to apologize for Zachary. Though I was hoping perhaps I might be able to ask you something else while we are here?"

So Cedric couldn't get any sort of lenience on telling Elizabeth about his wizarding status. He had expected as much so there. However maybe he'd be able to get help on another matter of his. He might not be able to help Cedric with what happens when he is discovered, but at the very least he might be able to help why he told her in the first place. After all that was a very big concern in itself. Any wizard that didn't have a wand was defenseless at best. It was like having an arm broken or being paralyzed almost.

Zachary's eyes followed and looked to the older student when he asked for more help, he didn't understand how he could possibly be of any kind of help. He was Zachary Kennedy, a fourth year student. What was he to anyone else other than just an heir, by some sort of fluke that his brother was disowned. Sighing, he nodded willing to listen.

"Go ahead.. I'm listening."

[Cedric Winters]

"Well I was hoping you might be able to tell me where the closet wand shop owned by your family would be. I tripped recently it it snapped in two."

Frowning, Cedric reached into his robe and extracted his blackthorn wand, the two pieces barely connected by a piece of demiguise hair. He clutched it at its base while the tip swung around a bit. It wasn't something he was proud of and he didn't like that something so close to him was broken. In any case, Cedric let it hang for a moment before he stowed it away in his robe again taking a deep breath and continuing on.

"As you can see my wand is unfortunately broken beyond any sort of repair."

Zachary's family more or less owned most of the wands, and as for a shop they didn't have a shop as much as they made the wands. Scratching his head he shrugged, "Just go to any old wand shop? My family tends to produce the wands, we don't have shops...That would be....Shameful." Zachary looked awkward about this, he was standing around at midnight with an older student, talking about broken wands, this was odd, why couldn't they have just met in the common room area of the Rose Fellowship?

[Cedric Winters]

Cedric found it a bit odd when Zachary mentioned that his family didn't have a shop of their own. After all they were some of the largest wandmakers in the United States. He found it even more strange the Zachary would use the word shameful to describe owning a wand shop. His choice of words for it was not exactly common and Cedric raised a brow at it. He'd press the issue more if he had time, but then again time wasn't exactly something he had. He'd rather just get Zachary back into bed and let him have his night. He needed to focus on getting a new wand and figuring out how to mitigate the fact he exposed his wizarding nature to a muggle. Moving to the door of the ballroom, Cedric rested on hand on the handle before he spoke.

"Right then. Well again, thank you Zachary. I do very much appreciate you meeting me. We best be returning to the Rose building. I've taken too much of your time as it is."

Zachary being thanked raised an eyebrow, but didn't question the others words any further, he didn't want to stay here and so he opened the door out of the ball room and just ran outside. Looking around he made sure no teachers were wandering these hallways and so he continued to wander on by, walking quickly through and with great haste, he didn't want to be caught doing something illegal, his father would not be happy especially since he would be disgracing the family like that.

Still, with haste and at times hesitance he would have made it to the Rose building in safety and quickly ran up to the fourth year dormitories only to curl up, and just not come out until the next day. That was by far the stupidest thing he had ever been forced to do.

[Cedric Winters]

Wondering why Zachary was dashing off so quickly, Cedric watched him almost sprint away as if there was an ominous curse looming over them. Still Cedric was not about to question it. Zachary was a good man for meeting him and offering what help he could. For that Cedric was in debt to him, even more so than he was before. That boy certainly had a bright future ahead of him if he acted the way he did, and Cedric was happy he knew him at all. Moving along, Cedric took a slower approach, being almost completely blind in the darkness without a wand to light the way. He tried to stay close to windows to get the moonlight to guide him, but it wasn't long before Zachary had run off and left him. All Cedric could do now was admit he had exposed himself to a muggle and face the consequences. More pressing though was that he acquired a new wand. He'd worry about it in the morning.