Help Is Only So Far Away

Part 10

All of it went whizzing over and over in his head, keeping him awake. He couldn't sleep after what just happened. It took a while, but soon he heard the snoring coming from Tyler's room. Hours later, nearly 5 in the morning and he was still awake. He wanted to get a drink but that involved getting up and he was warm and didn't want to wake anyone up. Lifting his head up slightly, he listened for any sounds. He could hear Tyler snoring but that was it. He decided to risk it. He pulled the covers off and stood up, embracing the cold that wrapped round him. Quietly, he opened the door and crept to the kitchen. As he did so, he walked past the sofa and saw that Quirrell was asleep. He tried even harder to be quiet, tiptoeing past. He flicked the switch on the right so the lights under the cupboard turned on but not the main light. He got himself a glass of milk and felt so much better after it. He placed the glass down on the counter, making a small noise. As he walked towards the doorway, Quirrell walked in.

They both looked at each other for a minute, before Quirrell awkwardly broke the eye contact and searched the nearest cupboard to him. He seemed unable to find whatever he was looking for as he moved down to the cupboard below, no luck. Voldemort went back to the cupboard behind him and got out a glass. He wordlessly handed it over to Quirrell. He took it and looked from the glass up to Voldemort.

"Er....th-thank you?" It came out like a question and Voldemort didn't know what to say. Silently, Quirrell filled his glass and drank it quickly, before refilling it.

"What was your dream about?" he blurted out the question before he could stop himself. Quirrell turned to him and narrowed his eyes. He stayed like that for a moment, before speaking.

"B-bellatrix and th-the d-dementors." Voldemort was taken aback.

"Bellatrix?" Quirrell suddenly seemed annoyed as he nodded. "Well, she is a bit crazy, but she's nothing to be scared of."

Quirrell muttered under his breath. "Easy f-for you t-to say. She ad-dores y-you." They stood in uncomfortable silence. Quirrell drank his second glass of water as Voldemort struggled with what to say next.

"You think she's bad now? You should've seen her at Hogwarts. She wouldn't leave me alone, following me everywhere with her crazy grin. I had to hide in the boy's bathroom just to get away." Quirrell chuckled and Voldemort looked up at him suddenly. The small smile changed his face completely, removing the frown lines and the dark circles around his eyes were less visible. He looked younger and somehow beautiful. Voldemort smiled at his ex-best friend.

"Half the time, I was waiting for her to burst in and try to drag me off to somewhere. She was a bit of an attention-seeker. She still is, to be honest. I don't know why she was Beater for the Quidditch team, being such a Seeker." At this point, Quirrell was full on laughing. The sound was light and musical and Voldemort smiled. They looked at each other, but this time, there wasn't a cold atmosphere and neither were hurting to see the other. "What about your friends?"

"M-My friends? I d-didn't have m-many at Hogwarts."

"You must have had one, at least?" Voldemort asked.

"E-Eleanor Grant." Quirrell smiled and looked lost in thought. "She w-was wonderful. C-clever, kind a-and even f-funny. We w-were the b-best of f-friends." He let out a sigh and turned his head to look at Voldemort.

"What happened?" Quirrell looked into his eyes for a few seconds.

"She l-left. H-her family m-moved away a-and w-we lost t-touch."

"Oh. She was your only friend?" Quirrell nodded. "You could have been my friend." Voldemort said it quietly, but Quirrell heard and laughed, not in a rude way, just laughing at the absurdity of it.