Andante - R. Lupin

64.

"Every morning I'm sick. I worry that Oberon will get bullied as he's so confident or that Wolf will have something happen to him. That Atlas will inevitably get treated badly here for his differences..."

He paused to catch his breath and Professor McGonagall nodded listening to him. She thought it was something along the lines of anxiety.  She stood up and looked down at Perseus

"Come along, we'll have tea and some biscuits then I'll refer you for some counselling with Madame Pomfrey,"

Perseus went to say something but he didn't have words. He had been told that counselling wasn't an option but he smiled and nodded at Professor McGonagall thankfully. He had liked her, he respected her and he appreciated that she was a fair teacher.

He loved her transfiguration lessons and he was thinking about going into teaching just because of how much she had a positive influence on his life. Perseus didn't understand or realise why he had ever wanted to go into teaching but he had known that there would be a vacancy as the arithmancy teacher would be leaving. He thought it was something to consider.

Perseus followed after Professor McGonagall, thankful that someone was finally seeing him.

25th December 1959

"Perseus wake up! Father Christmas has been!"

Perseus groaned and rolled over to see the atlas at the end of the bed. He raised an arm and a ten-year-old Atlas crawled in next to him so he could hug his brother. He knew the only reason Atlas came in was that he had a nightmare and it wasn't just because Father Christmas had been.

Atlas had a terrible tendency of having bad dreams about his magic and that people wouldn't be accepting. Atlas squeezed Perseus tightly and whimpered in his side.

"Do you know what the time is 'Tlas?" Perseus mumbled into his pillow

"Just after four am,"

Perseus nodded and wrapped an arm around Atlas, ruffling his brother's hair.

"Go back to sleep now alright? You're safe in here with me," Perseus reassured and within minutes both Montague brothers were sleeping peacefully

It was a few hours later when a bell was chiming throughout Montague Mansion. Perseus woke up feeling slightly more refreshed after his four am wake up. He didn't like atlas sharing a bed because Atlas wriggled around like he was some sort of flubberworm but he cared enough about his brother to know that he needed support and he would give it to him.

Atlas sat up and held Perseus' hand as he pulled him from the bed. Perseus stopped him and looked his brother in the eye, he saw that he had crust in his eye from dried tears and wiped them away from him.

"What are you doing?" Atlas whined excitedly to run down and open presents

"The sandman has been Atlas, I'm sorting your eyes out."

Atlas just nodded and waited for Perseus to sort it. The Sandman story was something Perseus had heard from a muggle-born Hufflepuff girl called Mali-Hâf. She was a Welsh girl who had a lot of welsh tales to tell. The Sandman story wasn't a specifically welsh one but she had told Perseus in their Muggle studies class before and he had loved the story so much that he had come home and told Atlas about it.