who ? xavier ansari and aisling astor when ? monday evening, late-ish where ? the panquake house, hogsmeade what ? sleepy times! status ? complete
Aisling hadn’t quite forgotten about Ramadan, now exactly. She had it pencilled in a diary somewhere, had done it for as long as she had known Xavier. It was useful to remember when it started so she could remind everyone else that eating in front of someone who was fasting was a touch rude and they should be more considerate. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t exactly like Xavier’s religious observations impacted the rest of their lives, except that Aisling had realised, as she had read Xavier’s journal, that Ramadan meant no sex. The fact that completely slipped her mind until he’d reminded them all that the fasting month was here. Not that that mattered either. Aisling liked to think herself rather accommodating.
Which was why today she had spent a good half an hour looking for the box in which she knew there were some winter pyjamas. Or rather, actual pyjama trousers rather than the barely underwear sized shorts she usually wore to bed. Sharing a bed with Xavier had become somewhat of a habit, one Aisling quite enjoyed. And yes, plenty of times that lead to sex, but not always and Aisling didn’t feel that just because they couldn’t have sex, she should stop sharing a bed with him. Unless Xavier wanted them to, which he hadn’t said he did yet. But it did strike Aisling as a bit unfair if she was going to carry on wearing next to nothing to bed. Thus, pyjama bottoms that actually covered her bottom were acquired.
To go with the trousers, Aisling had found a t-shirt, too, which she was rather sure was either Andrew’s or Ken’s but it smelled clean so it didn’t really matter. Once dressed appropriately, Aisling made her way down the corridor to Xavier’s room. She knocked lightly, since it was late, but Aisling was rather confident he wouldn’t be asleep just yet. If for no other reason than the fact that Aisling by now knew Xavier’s sleep schedule almost as well as she knew her own.
--
Xavier knew he wasn’t exactly a model Muslim when it came to some aspects, but that didn’t mean his faith wasn’t important to him. Things had shifted a bit when magic came into the picture, and he’d had to evaluate what meant the most to him to keep in his practice versus others. Ramadan was one of those pieces that meant a lot, both to him personally as well as with his family. It was one of the pillars, and one of the parts that made him feel less distant from his parents and sister, despite their lives being so different.
So he observed - fasted, prayed, refrained from anything that would take away from what the fasting accomplished. Most years that didn’t mean much change, but that year it did because of Aisling. At least she was understanding and supportive about it, which Xavier appreciated, but he still hadn’t quite expected to get a knock on his door.
Going over to open it, he peeked out before taking a step back to pull it open the rest of the way so she could get in. “Hey…” he greeted, a soft smile turning up the corners of his mouth with how she was dressed. “Give me a minute and I’ll be ready for bed? You don’t have to go, I just need to change.”
--
When Xavier opened the door, letting her in, Aisling gave him a smile before walking over to the bed, crawling in to sit cross legged on it. “You do whatever you need to do,” she told him with a nod. “I hope you appreciate my least sexy pyjamas,” Aisling added with a small laugh as she looked down at the pyjamas. Little Hello Kitty’s looked back up at her. Aisling wasn’t particularly sure why she even owned the pyjamas, but hey, they worked. There were definitely things more sexy than Hello Kitty.
“Are you sure this is okay?” She asked after a moment. “I mean, I’m not suggesting that I’m irresistible,” Aisling added more jokingly, before her tone went back to serious. “But I would totally understand if you rather sleep on your own?” She offered. Aisling would understand and she’d be okay with it, too. Except she rather hoped that he wouldn’t tell her to leave. “I guess, I’m just used to--” She paused, giving half a shrug. “Sleeping with you?” Well, it was true.
--
Shutting the door quietly once she was inside, Xavier glanced over as she climbed up onto his bed, grinning a little when she mentioned the pyjamas. “Those are very nice, thank you,” he said with a quiet chuckle, walking over to his dresser to find something suitable to wear to bed. He generally didn’t wear much either, but he couldn’t do that if she was there, so he found some joggers and a t-shirt to pull on, quickly changing into them.
“It’s okay,” he answered automatically, glancing over to her as he pulled the t-shirt on over his head and pushing his arms out into the sleeves. “As long as you can resist all this,” he added teasingly, gesturing to himself. He moved over to the bed and crawled up onto it, offering her an easy smile. “It’s okay, I promise. I’m used to it too, I like having you here. I’ll be fine.”
--
“As hard as that will be, I think I can probably manage,” Aisling replied with a grin, before moving so he’d have plenty of room in the bed next to her. She took in his appearance and frowned slightly. “We’re going to need some cooling charms,” she noted thoughtfully. This was probably the most either of them had worn to bed in months, whether sleeping together or not. Aisling’s smile softened when Xavier said that he did like having her here and that he, too, was used to them sleeping together. It was nice.
Stretching her legs, Aisling poked a toe against Xavier’s leg. “You want me to read you some instruction manuals to bore you to sleep?” She offered. Obviously, sex was out of the window, and the best alternative Aisling had come up with at a short notice was instruction manuals. Or well, rather, she had thought of it. Aisling wasn’t too sure she knew where to find any instruction manuals. Or perhaps an old phonebook.
--
“Cooling charms are a good idea,” Xavier mumbled, reaching over to the nightstand to retrieve his wand, casting them quickly before slipping his legs underneath the covers and settling down better into the bed. He glanced over at the poke against his leg, quirking an eyebrow and then laughing at her question. “I think I’ll manage without the instruction manuals, but thanks.”
He turned onto his side toward her, absently reaching down and taking her hand with his, more habit than anything but it was innocent enough. “Maybe you should tell me a story instead.”
--
Aisling joined Xavier under the covers easily enough, giving his hand a squeeze when he took hers, but not moving closer like she normally would’ve done. It was odd to judge what counted as appropriate and what did not, especially since Aisling suspected they’d probably migrate towards each other once asleep anyway. Shifting so she could lie on her side, Aisling raised an eyebrow at Xavier. “Maybe you should tell me a story, hmm?” She suggested, but didn’t really pause before continuing.
“What kind of story do you want?” She asked, trying to think of the sort of fairy tales her nannies had read to her when Aisling was little. Apart from those, Aisling wasn’t sure she knew any stories. And even so, a lot of the ones she recalled involved gruesome murders, since her mother had insisted on having the Grimm fairy tales not only read to Aisling as originally written, but also in German. Perhaps she should make a story up.
--
Xavier nuzzled his face into his pillow a little more at her response before peeking over at her through his eyelashes. He hadn’t thought through anything further than that, he’d only been trying to think of a better solution than Aisling reading some random instruction manual to him. She had a nice voice, though, soothing, and he figured listening to her would help.
“Any kind?” he asked, his brow furrowing a little as he tried to think. “Did I tell you Bri showed me a picture from your first year, of your year’s Ravenclaws? You and Axel, all little.” His thumb brushed over the back of her hand. “What was that like, when you found out? Got your letter and all that?”
--
‘Any kind’ wasn’t a particularly concrete instruction, so Aisling was thinking over all the stories she could, trying to decide which one actually fit where and whether the ending she thought of was stitched onto the wrong story, when Xavier mentioned Briana showing him photos of their school days. “Oh,” she said, before giving a small laugh. “Did you get to see any of the pictures of Axel’s hair in Fifth Year? I think I have one framed somewhere in the house,” Aisling told Xavier. Axel’s hair back then had deserved all the mocking and Aisling had no intention of ever letting him forget it either.
At Xavier’s question, Aisling frowned slightly. “I’m not sure that’s a very interesting story?” She offered but what she really meant was a ‘nice’ story. It wasn’t unpleasant or anything, just a bit... “My parents didn’t want me to go at first,” she explained. “They were worried that I wouldn’t be able to practice,” which, in Aisling’s opinion, had been rather fair. “And took a lot of convincing that I would be able to practice my violin and attend concerts before they even considered it.” In the end it had worked out, thankfully. “Hogwarts isn’t exactly... the best known of boarding schools,” Aisling said with a small laugh. Her family really was too posh for their own good.
“What about you?” She asked, genuinely interested.
--
“No, I just saw the one from first year,” Xavier said with a chuckle. “If it’s around the house, I’m sure I’ve seen it, though.” It was strange to see his bandmates from back before he knew them, because they had all been such different people than who he knew. Then again, he was sure he was as well. He blinked slowly as he listened to Aisling talk, humming in response when she mentioned her violin. She’d been a musician far longer than him, so that made sense.
“Oh, I don’t think my parents wanted me going either,” he started, then paused. “I wasn’t allowed in the room when they were talking to the professor who came. The whole magic thing, they didn’t like it or want me involved with it. They gave in, though, after a long time of talking and convincing that I’d shown signs of magic already. We went to Diagon all together, I think my parents still didn’t really believe any of it until we were there, and my sisters’ eyes got so big, but they were little and didn’t understand even afterward.”
--
“The photos become much more exciting once puberty and awful hair choices hits,” Aisling assured him, making a mental note of locating their old school photos. Not necessarily just to show Xavier, mostly to mock Axel with. She was sure that the rest of their bandmates would enjoy the pictures, too. Perhaps she could find some with Ken, Xavier and Andrew, too. Seemed a bit pointless to look for ones with Mary-Anne since she had left Hogwarts about ten minutes ago.
Aisling grinned at the way Xavier explained how his sisters had been when first seeing Diagon Alley. She could understand that, Aisling was quite sure her own eyes had done a similar thing. “It is a very exciting experience,” she agreed. “One of our housekeepers turned out to be a Squib, so she took me,” Aisling explained, before biting her lips slightly. “Like I said, it’s not the most exciting of stories,” she noted with a shrug. Aisling knew how odd it sounded that her parents hadn’t been the ones to take her to what would be her first magical experience, but then, her family just didn’t do those kind of things together.
“Tell me about your sorting ceremony,” Aisling urged instead. It was odd, in a way, how they both shared so many experiences yet had been too far away in age in school to have really ever known each other.
--
“Mine wasn’t that exciting either,” Xavier offered, bringing his free hand up to rub at his face for a moment. He still didn’t know what all had been said in that room after he’d been told to leave, all he knew was it had taken a really long time before he’d been allowed back in. Even at a young age, he’d known something was wrong, and it had taken more proof before anyone in his family believed what was going on.
“My sorting was scary.” He wrinkled his nose as he thought back to it. “I didn’t like being up in front of everyone like that, all strangers and in a place I didn’t know. Everything was so foreign, and different, and I had to wear this weird robe and put on a strange hat in front of everyone. All I really remember is feeling nervous and scared and then being told I was in Hufflepuff and getting pointed toward the right table.” It hadn’t been an easy start at all, even after that. “What about yours?”
--
Aisling couldn’t help but smile softly when Xavier said that the sorting had been scary. Personally, she had never had an issue with being in front of people, all eyes on her, but then she had also played concerts since she was very young. Even so, Aisling hardly thought she was as keen on the attention as some of their other bandmates. “The perils of having a surname that starts with an A,” she said teasingly.
“I guess, I was nervous, too,” she commented thoughtfully, fingers linking with Xavier’s as she thought back on the experience. “It didn’t take the Hat a very long time to put me in Ravenclaw,” Aisling added. She had heard of many others almost getting into a discussion with the Hat on what house would suit them best, but Aisling’s had been pretty clear cut. Or perhaps, she just hadn’t had the knowledge required to argue. “Not that I knew what it meant,” she said with a small laugh. “The whole night seemed to go by in such a blur.” Which also probably wasn’t very surprising, since it was all a new experience. “Made friends with Ashleigh the same evening,” Aisling added more pleasantly, thinking of her best friend.
--
"I wish they'd gone by first names," Xavier mumbled, his fingers easily spreading so hers could fit between them. "It put me in Hufflepuff right away, had no idea what it meant. That was a lot of it, though. Going to Diagon, then being at Hogwarts, so much of it sounded made up and I didn't understand. English was weird enough, then magic English made even less sense."
He smiled softly at her mention of Ashleigh. "Like me and Cedric. Met him straight away, he was nice and tried to help." Being a first year had been bad enough, but Xavier knew he'd put himself in a worse spot by not being the most outgoing person. Cedric had been kind to him from the moment they met, and he'd always appreciated that.
--
“Wouldn’t make a great deal of difference for me,” Aisling laughed. If anything, going by first name would put her even further ahead in the list. Her smile did soften when Xavier said that everything had just seemed like a lot. It had, she agreed, but even then, Aisling couldn’t possibly imagine what it must’ve been like if English wasn’t your first language. She almost wished she had known Xavier in school, not that she was under any illusion they would’ve made friends, the age gap between them would have felt huge back in school.
Aisling nodded at the mention of Cedric. It was nice that they had both managed to make such good friends at school, Aisling knew that not everyone had left Hogwarts with best friends as close as her and Xavier. “And yet, here we are,” she said. “All the pyjama clad interactions,” Aisling added with a grin, bumping her leg against Xavier’s. This was nice, even if she wasn’t completely sure which bit in particular. Perhaps all of it.
--
"Well no, I was only thinking of myself with that," Xavier admitted, huffing out a quiet laugh. Despite the rough start of it all, he didn't think he would trade his years at Hogwarts for anything. He wasn't always sure of his place in the world, but that had made him feel more in touch with himself fully than he would have been able to staying in the muggle world alone.
"All the pyjama clad interactions," he agreed with a nod, smiling at her bump against his leg. "We made it out alright." He gave her hand a light squeeze and yawned, bringing his other hand up to cover his mouth. "Sorry..."
--
Xavier’s yawn sent Aisling off into a yawn of her own and she gave a small laugh. Being sleepy meant that they had successfully by-passed the need for reading instruction manuals out loud, which was pretty good. In fact, the conversation they had had, was probably quite a lot better than a booklet on how to properly maintain a car engine.
“Sleep,” she instructed, because frankly, if the sleepiness was there, Aisling thought they should probably take advantage of that. Leaning forward slightly, Aisling pressed a soft kiss against Xavier’s forehead. “Talk more tomorrow,” she added before following it up with another yawn.