#philip stop the tender shoulder touches or olyvar's gonna fall in love with you-challenge

[gaygryffindorgal]

Knowledge Is Power, day 02 of @cursebreakerfarrier ‘s Back to School Challenge

Word count: 460

A teenage Olyvar is uncharacteristically nervous about his Astronomy O.W.L.

“I’m not sure why, but I really, really want to do well in this exam–,” Olyvar’s sentence was cut short when Philip suddenly slumped against his shoulder. The two boys were waiting for their Astronomy O.W.L. to start and it was nearing eleven in the evening. Needless to say, neither one of them had had a good night’s sleep in a while.

“Philip!” he hissed and nudged the Hufflepuff with his elbow. Philip straightened up and looked around, slightly confused, for a second or two.

“Were you listening to anything I just said?”

“I… yes of course,” said Philip with a sheepish smile. “Alright, no I wasn’t.”

“It was important.”

“I’m sorry, can you please repeat?”

Olyvar sighed. “I was just saying that I don’t think Professor Adhara likes me very much.”

Philip made a face like Olyvar had just said something really funny. “Well, of course she doesn’t. You talk over her like some sort of entitled little brat.”

This whole conversation was not going the way Olyvar had planned. “She never lets me answer questions when I raise my hand!”

“Because she doesn’t want to go on a half an hour long tangent with you about something that’s barely even related to the class.”

“Philip, you’re no help at all.”

The other boy grinned.

“Fine, I know I can be a lot,” Olyvar admitted. It was just that he had a lot to say about Astronomy.

“I think it’s great, that you’re passionate about something,” Philip continued. “I’m still not even sure I chose the right O.W.L.s to focus on.”

“You can always retake them next year.”

“Merlin, all of this, again? And then N.E.W.T.s the year after that? I think I’d rather die.”

The boys laughed and some of the students still doing last minute studying shushed them, which only made them laugh harder.

“You’ll do amazing,” Philip said eventually. “You’d be the top of our class if you didn’t antagonize the professor.”

“I’ll try my best not to do any antagonizing tonight.”

Philip looked at him thoughtfully. “I am a bit curious though,” he said. “I thought you didn’t care for grades.”

“I care about this one,” Olyvar replied. “I know, I know, sometimes I surprise even myself.”

“Well, you’re brilliant, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you did well in all of your exams even if you don’t care…” mused Philip and touched his shoulder. It was a brief gesture, but Olyvar’s heart did multiple back flips and then flung itself into the stars he was supposed to be charting in less than ten minutes. He didn’t have time to start figuring that out, so he brushed it aside and instead tried to visualise the word Outstanding in Astronomy written on his O.W.L.s report card.