Gossip {Sherlock Holmes/Harry Potter}

Chapter Forty Two

Pierce sat in the courtyard after class, playing with a small leaf in hand as he sat alone.  Julius wouldn't look, speak or even acknowledge Pierce's existence since the event in detention. He tried multiple times but he was shut down each time. 

"Still haven't talked to him?" Nancy arrived and sat beside him on the stone wall.

"He hates me."

"He doesn't hate you, Pierce. I think he's just confused and upset, that's all. He'll get over it soon."

"I doubt it." He mumbled under his breath.

"Well, if you haven't spoken to Julius, have you spoken to Hermione?" She asked.

"No, I haven't spoken to anyone besides you." He said.

"Are you still going to try and woo her?" 

"That is really the last thought on my mind right now, Nancy. Honestly, my best friend in the entire universe hates me, I'm not thinking about trying to woo anybody, I'm just trying to get him to talk to me."

He looked up when Nancy didn't respond to see her looking out in the distance. He followed her gaze to see that her eyes had settled on Hermione who was walking beside Harry talking to him and Ron.

"Uh, Nancy? Hello?"

"He won't give me a chance to even talk to him." Pierce confided in John and Sherlock as he met up with them on the weekend in Hogsmeade. "He ignores my entire existence, when all I want to do is figure out what happened."

"Well, it's simple right? He kissed you, that's what happened." Sherlock responded calmly before sipping his drink. He stopped mid sip as he witnessed John and Pierce giving him deadly glares. "What?"

"It's not as simple as just sharing a kiss!" John told him before shaking his head. " Julius is Pierce's best friend, Pierce was trying to pursue Hermione, but now it seems that Julius attempted to pursue Pierce, but when that didn't work in his favor right away, he went on the defense and is now ignoring Pierce. Got it?"

"Sounds like a bunch of nonsense to me." Sherlock replied setting his cup down.

"It's not nonsense!" Pierce looked at his father. "Julius is my best friend and I can't....I can't function properly without him. I keep finding myself alone at the castle because he's the only one I can stand being around for long periods of time. He's the only one that has been there for me through everything.'

"Then tell him that." Sherlock said.

"Are you dense?" Pierce growled at him. "Have you been listening to a word I've said? He doesn't want anything to do with me."

"That's obviously not true. He probably wants more to do with you than you do with him. After all, he's the one who kissed you, leaving you confused. He was well aware of his actions. He just didn't get the reaction he wanted out of you. So to cover up his mistake, he's ignoring you. The only one dense around here is you."

"How do you figure?" Pierce folded his arms over his chest while John covered his face and shook his head.

"Because you're a wizard, fully capable of magic and yet you let him walk away from you each time. Have some common sense, boy."

"Oh.' Pierce's face softened. "I didn't think of that."

"Of course you didn't. That's why you're lucky to have me around."

"That only solves half the problem, though. Because I don't know what to tell Julius."

Pierce looked up to see both John and Sherlock staring at him.

"Well, don't just look at me, tell me what to do or something!" He begged the two men. "That's your job as adults, boss children around, isn't it?"

"Not a job," Sherlock said. "But definitely a perk."

"So tell me what to do."

"But we can't, Pierce." John said. "We can't tell you what to do, because we don't have control over your feelings. We can't force you to feel a certain way about someone. This is solely on you to make the decision. After all, it's your life and your relationship with whomever you choose it to be with."

"I can't figure it out though. I like Hermione, she's a brilliant witch, I've always admired that about her. One of the only females that I can stand being around and can talk to. But then Julius has always been there. He's...Julius. He knows everything about me, and I know everything about him. Well, I almost knew everything about him. I certainly didn't know all of that."

John leaned forward on the table, pressing his lips together as he thought for a moment.

"The way I see it, Pierce, is Hermione sounds like a lovely girl and intellectually you connect with her on a different level. You are able to converse with her and she is able to understand. Julius while a very smart boy, he can be somewhat immature when you need him to be mature, that's when you seek Hermione. Girls are known to develop maturity far sooner than boys. But as you said yourself, Julius has been the one there for you since day one. He knows things about you and you know things about him. Obviously, he means a great deal to you and you mean a great deal to him."

Pierce ran his fingers back and forth on the table looking away from the man's gaze.

"Perhaps you two, or rather just you, became comfortable with the idea of just seeing him as a friend because that's what he's always been, a friend. It's hard to look past the idea of becoming more, especially when the majority of the time you have spent together has been only a platonic relationship."

The teen boy looked back and forth between John and his father.

"Is that why it's taking you two so long?"