My eyes met his honey-coloured ones in an instant. Toffee-blonde hair, tanned skin, and one of the friendliest, warmest smiles I had seen in my life spread across his face as our gazes met. Then he began to approach me, kindness pouring from him with every step.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice hinting at a slight accent I couldn't quite place.

I cocked my head to the side. He does look familiar but... I'm sure I haven't met him before. So, ignoring his question, I countered with, "Who are you?"

Chuckling, he sat on the bench next to me. "Right. We haven't officially met." He nodded to himself. "I'm Lukas," he then said, the German inflections clearer, before holding his hand out to me. His eyes sparkled with a whole spectrum of emotions, yet not one I could single out to determine his authenticity.

So I did the most normal thing instead, warily placing my hand in his.

Shock marred his face as our hands collided. But it was quickly replaced by pain as his eyes scrunched up at my touch. Yet despite the clear discomfort he was in, he stood steadfast, gripping my hand like this moment mattered.

Am I staticky again? I couldn't help but wonder.

"You've got quite the zap," he said, as though he could hear my thoughts. Then, at once, he released his hold of me. Reluctantly or willingly... I couldn't quite tell. Rubbing his palm as he asked again, "Why are you sitting on this park bench in the rain?"

Rolling my eyes, I responded with, "This totally isn't rain. It's spitting."

He breathed a laugh, eyes twinkling with light. "Fair. But it is cold and wet out."

His gaze held me, not wavering, almost tugging at the truth to come out of me. Unable to keep up my end, I eventually admitted under my breath, "I've been trying to find Ben."

He glanced at me—almost assessing me. "You're not going to find him in the park..."

"I know. I've been trying to find the house but I honestly can't remember where it is!" I groaned before pulling at my face in despair.

He leaned back on the bench, a grin spreading across his face. "Ollie, I think you must be older than me. Apparently you've never heard of a mobile phone."

With an eyebrow cocked, I slowly turned my head again to look at him, waveringly asking, "How do you know my nickname?"

"You told me," he simply replied, voice full of confidence.

"When?" This is the first time we've met...

"I heard you say it."

"When?" I asked again, feeling more sure that I was right here... But his face showed no hint of deceit.

He merely shrugged back before nonchalantly stating, "I don't remember. But I didn't just come up with it." Then a laugh escaped him, as though I was being the ridiculous one here.

I stared at him, searching his eyes for any ounce of dishonesty. But the kindness and warmth that oozed back left no room for doubt for me.

Have I really been that wrapped up in Ben that I didn't realise I mentioned my nickname at the house the other day? I wondered, already feeling embarrassed about myself.

I didn't know why I trusted him... but for some reason I found it impossible not to. So I dropped the topic and finally confessed, "My phone broke."

"Ah! The mystery is solved. Couldn't get a new one?"

I grimaced and looked away. "Didn't save his number to my SIM."

"Young people these days... don't even know how to effectively use the technology in front of him."

My jaw dropped at his comment. He knew I knew what he was, and he was not holding back with the jokes. His openness and playfulness roused a smile on my face, my earlier worries disappearing. "Unbelievable. Making fun of me when I'm obviously upset."

"You're big enough and hairy enough to handle a joke," he smirked at me. But then his expression softened before he said, "Besides... it made you smile."

I slowly nodded. "Indeed it did."

Then he sighed. "So... you want to see Ben?"

"Yes," I whispered, my confidence disappearing.

But it didn't go unnoticed by him. "Are you sure?"

I met his gaze. "Should I not?" My stomach churned, a part of me wondering if he'd say I shouldn't... maybe even hoping.

Yet he simply shrugged. "That's completely your decision, Ollie. I can't make that for you." A few moments of silence echoed between us until he then queried, "You're not scared of him? Of us?"

I shook my head in response before adding, "Weirdly... no. I thought I would be... I wondered if I was for a moment... but honestly that fear was just something I was manifesting to run away."

"Run from what?"

"Any chance of being happy."

"Ben makes you happy?" he whispered, gaze burning into the side of my face.

"I believe so," I said back hesitantly glancing at him.

Lukas stared at me, not saying much, gauging my reaction. A concoction of emotions swirled in his eyes once more, never settling on one long enough for me to read him.

"You don't like me though, do you?" I finally braved when he seemed to not be going to say anything.

His eyebrows furrowed at my comment. "What makes you think that?"

"Everyone made it seem like you didn't want to meet me when I came to the house last week."

He gave me a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I could never hate you, Ollie."

As the words exited his mouth, I couldn't help but feel that we were somehow already friends. In fact, the sureness in his tone at that point almost made me feel as if we had known each other for a while... as though we had merely had a spat and were just making up.

But then again... this was my first time meeting him.

"Then why did you hide from me? Erica said you were refusing to come down," I countered, not wanting to leap at the trust I already had for him.

"I wasn't feeling... up for company," he said back, a cloud creeping into his gaze.

"Ben thinks you are always sociable."

Lukas looked away at the trees, eyes sweeping over the scenery as he mulled over his next choice of words. "Ben doesn't know everything about me," he finally whispered... to me or to the abyss, I wasn't sure. But I went with the former.

"Aren't you two best friends?" I asked.

His brown, open eyes twinkled as he glanced at me again before looking back at the park surrounds. "Sometimes we hide a lot of our biggest secrets from those closest to us purely because we don't want them to share our pain."

My heart throbbed for the man sitting next to me on this bench. Knowing the story Ben told me about his friend, I could see the hurt echoing in his eyes... thousands of secrets most likely yet to be disclosed to those around him as the torment of the life he lived so far haunted every step of his.

Suddenly, I wanted to rid that pain from him. I wanted him to smile one of those joyful grins I had seen earlier. It almost felt like it was my obligation.

I looked out at the park, searching for whatever his gaze had become fixated on in the hopes I could use it to draw him back in. But as I finally spotted what he was focussing on, I hesitated.

A couple, wearing raincoats and holding hands, leaned down and fed the wild ducks bread. Stopping every so often, they shared a laugh or smile. Lost in love, we were the rare few to witness their moment of bliss.

I turned back to Lukas just in time to watch a small, sad smile steal his face.

"So tell me," I started, stealing his gaze from the couple, though I could tell he wasn't quite with me yet, still somewhat distracted by them or the memories they evoked. "Is Hogwarts real?"

And the light was back. "You wish. We had our own school here in London."

"Really?"

He nodded, warmth flooding through him quickly as he told me, "Opened up at the turn of the century. That's where we all met."

"I always hear about an 'all' and 'the group'. Who are these people?"

"Everyone you met in our house, some who live with Jade, and the rest are now dotted around London. A lot of us decided to live together when we finished school. There's seventeen of us. We all went through school together when it opened."

"But don't you all age differently?"

"Yes... but it was also our first official magical education so we had a lot to learn. Everything until then had been from our parents or through trial and error..." He spoke with such confidence and familiarity with me, in a way that made me feel open to him. Like we had conversed many times before.

But decided then that was just how Lukas was. Friendly to all, even if his past suggested he should be wary of us.

I decided then it would be one of the traits I liked most about him.

Nodding in response, many more questions sprung to my mind, but I bit them back.

And in my silence, he said, "That's where Ben and I met. Speaking of which... did you want me to tell him you're here?"

As I sat there, looking into Lukas's curious gaze, I ended up breathing, "In a second," before turning to look back at the couple who were still feeding the ducks and enjoying their time in the rain. "I just want to sit here a little longer."

Because, as much as I longed to see Ben, I was wary of the ghosts in Lukas's eyes. He had only been lost in thought moments ago, and I knew sometimes it was more than a simple joke or comment necessary to shake the demons away. Considering Lukas had taken time out of his day to join me on this drizzly park bench to hear my woes and cheer me up, I knew I owed him a similar kindness.

And so we sat in silence, watching them finish their loaf of bread before they ran off through the rain.

"You like Ben?" Lukas asked me, keeping his eyes on the vacant spot by the lake.

"I do," I mumbled back, feeling the heat flood my face.

"Does he know?"

"I'm sure it's fairly obvious."

He pursed his lips, moving onto his next question. "Does he like you?"

"No clue. Sometimes I think he does, sometimes I think he doesn't. He's hard to read."

"He's not great with people. Terrible in fact. He will probably hurt you a lot because he doesn't know how to speak to people." It felt like a warning.

"Why is that?" I pressed.

"That's his story to tell," was all he gave me back.

I pursed my lips as I thought, He had no problem sharing your story. But, of course, I didn't share that part with him.

"However, he makes you happy." It was a statement, not a question.

Nonetheless, I nodded.

While he hadn't been looking at me, I knew he had seen it, because Lukas was quick to pull out his phone out before holding it up to his ear. "Oi," he said almost instantly. "What are you doing?"

There was silence for a moment as whomever he called responded.

"Stop moping and come hang with me. I'm at Ravenscourt, sitting here all by myself looking at these stupid ducks with no one to tease."

Another moment of silence.

"Yeah, I get it Romeo. You're sad that she ditched your whiny arse. Just come here." He hung up the phone without giving whomever he was speaking to a chance to respond.

"You know," I started, and his eyes quickly met mine, "Romeo and Juliet doesn't have a happy ending. So I really don't understand why people always refer to people in love as Romeo or Juliet."

He smirked at me without responding. But I wasn't finished.

"Also, Romeo and Juliet's love is really foolish and fast. They don't even know each other and risk everything and even die for each other and for what?" I shook my head. "It certainly isn't a compliment to be compared to them."

"'For never was there a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo'," he quoted, getting to his feet. "See you around, Ollie."

And with that ominous as fuck comment hanging in the air between us, he simply walked away.

As I watched him leave, I began to ponder his quote, feeling almost like he was saying something to me... about me.

To be fair, he was right.

Ben and I had barely known each other, and already I was consumed in him. From the outside, I could see how pathetic I looked. However, surely we wouldn't have a similar fate.

Right?

But before I could spiral further into analysing the warnings of woe, a figure in the distance brought all thoughts to a halt.

Dressed all in black, as per usual, with gloomy eyes that were sheltered by his locks, he gazed at his phone—presumably texting Lukas to figure out where he was.

Getting to my feet, I took a deep breath before trying to confidently call out, "Hey stranger."

How will he react? My mind immediately screamed. Will he be excited to see me? Angered? Was he already over me?

I didn't have to wait long though. At once, his head snapped up, brilliant blue immediately seeking me out.