Lost in his own enthusiasm for space, he hadn’t initially noticed that Asena was cold, although it should have been plainly obvious based on her lack of enthusiasm for his tour. With the expression of an enthusiastic golden retriever, Gus was clearly enjoying himself, with the cold, rather than acting as an enemy, keeping the bare skin of his face and hands cold and flushed whilst his warm jumper and the T-shirt underneath kept him cosy. His expression faltered for a moment, however, as her words pierced his toasty-warm barrier. “It can get a little cold here, especially at night,” he agreed, only now taking in the tightly wrapped shawl around her shoulders. How had he not noticed this already? Without another word, he quickly pulled at the sleeve of his green woollen jumper and had it up over his head and in his hands quickly, almost losing balance. Good thing he wasn’t close to the edge of the barrier, not that the fall would have hurt him with the charms cushioning him. Not wanting to hand over a smelly jumper, Gus did inconspicuously give it a small sniff as he whipped it up and over his head, but was content that the Hogwarts elves had done a good job washing it. “Do you want this? My base layer will keep me warm enough”, his jumper now neatly folded and being held out in one hand towards her. The base layer, whilst slightly worn much like most of his things did fit him snugly and offered a surprising amount of protection for what was, a thin piece of clothing.
The fact that she already knew a lot about space wasn’t exactly surprising, based on their previous conversations throughout the tour, but it did cause the reappearance of the smile on his face. “I suppose it is. Sorry, I’m not trying to make this boring for you,” his smile turning a little apologetic. “You’d get along well with my sister. She’s always pointing out the same thing,” although in her case, it was more so because he somewhat resembled their father in that regard. And yet, here he was again, pointing out the painstakingly obvious to another person whilst being blissfully unaware that they already knew what he was explaining. Considering this for a moment, his eyes followed hers up towards the night sky. “What was your old school like?”, curious to know more about the place that taught basic astronomy.
Someone a little more perceptive may have noticed that Asena was doing her best not to look down, but clearly Gus was not one of those people. Often getting lost in a book or in his own thoughts, this Hufflepuff epitomised a golden retriever in every sense of the word. Instead, he chose to take a few more steps away from Asena towards the barrier so that he could properly look over into the grounds before turning and sitting down on the floor, his back against the cold railing bars. |