A Spoonful of Sugar

Bennet Zonko // 16 // Hufflepuff // Prefect

[bennet-zonko]

WHO: Bennet Zonko and Ophelia Orpington WHEN: Saturday, March 18th, 1978. WHERE: The Room of Requirement

One would think that since he had been the one to spike the punch that Bennet himself wouldn’t drink any of it. That would have been the logical thing to do, but where was the fun in the logical course of action? The pink fuzziness of love potion crept along the edges of his vision as he turned from the bunch bowl eyes widening as thoughts of Darcy were pushed to the back of his mind and in their place he could only think of a witch who was unfamiliar to him. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”

@opheliaxorpington

[bennet-zonko]

moony-themarauder‌:

“Oh it’s definitely an attempt to keep you and Imogen apart.” Remus agreed with a laugh. Those two on rounds together usually spelled more trouble than order, and it was a curiosity how the two of them ended up as prefects for their year. When they were separated, however, they weren’t half-bad at the job and were certainly entertaining to have rounds with. “I’ve had a few rounds with Imogen recently, actually. Is she alright? She doesn’t seem as cheerful as usual.” Remus noted with concern. Normally, Remus felt as though he was chasing after the rambunctious Hufflepuff as she bounded through the corridors, but found more recently she clung to his side and sent worried glances down darkened hallways as they passed. Almost as if she was afraid of every shadow. Given the current state of the school and that of the wizarding world, he didn’t blame her in the slightest. “I’ll be sure not to tell Amara you said so, but thanks.” Remus said with a laugh.

“She’s....” Bennet paused, his face falling slightly and his brows scrunching together. It truly wasn’t his place to say how Imogen was doing and he was an atrocious liar. Instead, he looked at his pal optimistically and voiced his hopes for her, “She’ll be okay”. Usually he radiated nothing but happiness but that had become much harder lately. Darcy had pulled away from him and though he was honoring her desire for space he often felt as if some part of him was constantly missing without her at his side. Imogen and Benito too seemed to be splintering. Hard though it was now to smile sometimes Bennet refused to be without joy. His smile lighted once more at the mention of Amara, “Oh, thank you! She’s a little scary, you know”

[bennet-zonko]

gidecns‌:

“Hey —” Gideon looked indignant. “I was playing with that!”

“What if I told you that I have something better for you?”

[bennet-zonko]

floconstable‌:

“You did not apologize,” Flo sniffed. “At least, I didn’t hear an apology. Oh, forget that – how do I get the stench out of my hair?” Flo widened her eyes, tugging on a few strands of hair. “Look – smell this!” She flipped her hair towards Bennet’s face. 

“Whoa!” Bennet exclaimed, trying to lean back far enough that he could avoid being assaulted by her hair but definitely not clearing it completely, “Oh, yeah. That’s definitely a smell. Um....I take it you’ve tried shampoo?”

[bennet-zonko]

moony-themarauder‌:

Remus walked next to Bennet easily, content simply listening to his fellow prefect chatter away about his invention. It was a good distraction to the throbbing in his head or the way he had to fight his eyelids to stay open just a little bit longer. He brightened, however, at Bennet’s idea. “Yes! That’s brilliant! If you let the customer teach them the words they’d like them to say, I can imagine they’d only be all the more popular. Not to mention, it saves you the trouble of having to come up with the words.”

“Thanks buddy” Bennet said, clapping Remus on the shoulder. He kept looking down at the little gernumbli in his hand. It would definitely take some spell work to figure out just how to teach it how to speak. Maybe he should do a study on parrots? The idea was pretty cool though. Perhaps he could be a successful inventor after all. “Enough about this guy” he said, putting the toy back in his pocket to think more about later since he didn’t have everything he needed now for research and he couldn’t just leave to go to the library or something in the middle of prefect rounds, “What’ve you been up to? We never get round together it seems. Though maybe this is an attempt to keep Imogen and I apart. Last time I was with Amara Zabini. She’s not as fun as you.”

[bennet-zonko]

imogenconnolly‌:

“Do you really think so?” Imogen asked, sniffing again as she pulled out of Bennett’s embrace and wiped the tears from her eyes. She needed to pull herself together. It wasn’t as though she minded showing emotion in front of others, but in the crowded Great Hall it would bring unwanted questions and Imogen hardly wanted to tell the story over and over again. “Is Benito okay, do you think? I know he won’t tell me he’s not if he thinks I’m worse off.”

“Of course I do” Bennet affirmed, “we’re best friends. We’ve been best friends for six years and we will continue to be best friends after we graduate. Pretty sure we promised each other that a couple of years ago and I at least do not break my promises”. Holding on to the old promises they had made one another helped him to be optimistic that things really would get better. “I’ll talk to him for you, okay?”

[bennet-zonko]

. darcy-saoirse‌:

Darcy knew it wouldn’t be fair, to herself or to Bennet, to continue if she wasn’t sure of what she was doing. She knew that he would take her back in a heartbeat if she would let it happen, and even though her brain was still in a fog of fear and confusion, Bennet seemed to be a light through it all. She craved the comfort that she felt around him, and gave a small nod to his question. “Bennet, I - I’m sure.” Nothing made sense in the world, but being with him felt right, and she couldn’t toss that away. Not anymore. “I need you, Bennet.”

For awhile now he had given her the space that she had asked him for. As time had gone on it had become more and more difficult for him to stay away. She was still going through whatever it had been that had broken them up in the first place. If she would just let him in even a little bit he would be there for her through it. He hated that she was hurting completely on his own. Saying that she needed him sent his hopes soaring that she would actually let him in. Bennet shifted besides her so that he could pull her into his arms, “I’ve missed you so much”

[bennet-zonko]

darcy-saoirse‌:

Perhaps it was her level of exhaustion, or the amount of worry that had been going through her mind, or how familiar and comfortable the situation seemed, but Darcy couldn’t think completely through her actions. If she could, she would have remembered that it had been her who had broken things off, her who needed time to work through things on her own. Any of those thoughts were gone though, and before she realized what she was doing, she was moving closer to Bennet. Soon, her lips were meeting his, gentle and timid, as if navigating through it all for the first time again.

Though not at all unwelcome something didn’t quite feel right about this. Since their break up they had definitely slipped a time or two and this just as easily could have been one of those moments but he couldn’t bring himself to take advantage of the fact that she was probably not thinking clearly. He really wanted for it to be. More than anything he wanted things to go back to the way that they had once been. “Darcy...” he whispered, his brain winning out the little internal battle, “are you sure?”

[bennet-zonko]

darcy-saoirse‌:

Darcy knew that they couldn’t even pretend to have control over that sort of thing. For her own part, she had been trying to stay as far away from anything related to the war as possible, but it still seemed to be encroaching on her life. Her nights had been plagued with visions of those around her disappearing or worse, and her days had been taken over with wondering how she would make herself go on if any of it did happen. When Bennet spoke, her eyes immediately found his, and before she could think better, she responded, her voice quiet. “Do you promise?”

Their relationship hadn’t blossomed near as quickly as Benito and Imogen’s had. There’s had been something built on a shifting friendship. They had been through a lot together as friends together. Every important first in his life had been a happy result of his relationship with her and he couldn’t even begin to fathom what it might be like if he didn’t have her. Whenever he thought of the future she was always in it. “Of course I do. You know your smile is my favorite.”

[bennet-zonko]

darcy-saoirse‌:

Before she could give it a second thought, Darcy was lowering her head onto Bennet’s shoulder. She found a comfort in the sense of familiarity of it all - it almost felt like she had never called off their relationship at all, like this was their normal routine. It was welcome. “It seems like every day we hear stories of the war, of another person who’s just vanished or worse and -” She was talking so quickly that she had to pause to take a breath. “And every night I imagine if it were someone I knew. Imogen, Benito, Addie. You.” She raised her head for a moment to look at him straight on. “I don’t think I could go on if that happened.”

Bennet would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least a little bit worried. He had hoped that it might be something that the ministry could take care of. He’d even gotten more hopeful when the aurors had arrived, but they had been here quite some time now and nothing had come of it. It wasn’t like him to be unhappy and all of the depressive energy around the castle was weighing him down and unfortunately it was completely understandable why people felt the way that they did. No matter how much he wanted to he couldn’t cheer her from this very, very real worry and he really, really wanted to. “I’m not going anywhere”

[bennet-zonko]

darcy-saoirse‌:

At the sound of her name, Darcy opened her eyes, slowly bringing her focus to the familiar form in front of her. Bennet. Sitting up, she scooted over to make room for him, before pushing the stray hair from her face. “Bennet. I - sorry. I just -” There was a time when she would have told Bennet everything. The nightmares, the feeling of hopelessness that plagued and tormented her. It had been her choice to end things, her choice to try and figure herself out. Obviously, it wasn’t going well. “I haven’t been sleeping well.” She finally admitted.

Bennet lowered himself into the space that she had made for him. “Do you wanna....” he asked, pointing towards her shoulder. He tried to smile at her but it was really hard for him to see her this way. After a moment he managed a soft inquiry of, “What’s wrong?”. Normally, he would have rambled something off or made some sort of joke to lighten the sudden sadness he felt but it was becoming harder to manage it as of late. She didn’t have to tell him if she didn’t want to, of course, but he wanted her to know that she could. Hadn’t he just told Imogen a week or two ago that she and Benito could make it through their rough patch? Hopefully they would do the same. 

[bennet-zonko]

WAND WOOD - Dogwood

“Dogwood is one of my own personal favourites, and I have found that matching a dogwood wand with its ideal owner is always entertaining. Dogwood wands are quirky and mischievous; they have playful natures and insist upon partners who can provide them with scope for excitement and fun. It would be quite wrong, however, to deduce from this that dogwood wands are not capable of serious magic when called upon to do so; they have been known to perform outstanding spells under difficult conditions, and when paired with a suitably clever and ingenious witch or wizard, can produce dazzling enchantments. An interesting foible of many dogwood wands is that they refuse to perform non-verbal spells and they are often rather noisy.”

- Garrick Ollivander

[bennet-zonko]

imogenconnolly‌:

Imogen couldn’t help a watery laugh at Bennet’s reference to his family’s long history in the joke business. Laughter was always the best medicine, but today it wasn’t enough. Imogen couldn’t fight the way her her lips pulled into a deep frown and her eyes watered. Hiding her face in Bennet’s chest, she allowed herself a few shuddered breaths. “I was so scared.” She whispered. “You should have seen Benito’s face.” She added after a moment. “He puts on a brave face but I know I scared him. And I ruined our date… I feel terrible about it.” In truth, she felt rather silly for making such a fuss over nothing. It was embarrassing to say the least, but she truly had been frightened. 

Bennet always managed to find something humorous about every situation, with a few major exceptions. Imogen, Benito and Darcy had become like a second family to him and it really hurt him whenever one of them was hurting and right now it seemed as if they all were and of course Bennet had absolutely no clue what to do about it. “You guys have been together for six years. There’s a lot of things you guys have conquered together, that the four of us have. I’m sure you’ll be okay. This is just another one of those things. Like me and Darcy. You guys will get through it. We’ll all get through it.”

[bennet-zonko]

moony-themarauder‌:

Remus nodded as Bennet spoke, studying the little figure. Zonko’s really did sell the most interesting trinkets and Remus thought this new addition would fit their collection quite nicely. “Well I can see a dilemma there,” Remus mused as they walked “but surely there are other naughty words that would be suitable for children while providing the same effect?” He supposed the suggestion wasn’t much better than curse words as parents surely wouldn’t appreciate the toy either way, but perhaps Bennet could sleep a bit better at night knowing that his invention wasn’t completely inappropriate. 

“See, I’ve thought of that” Bennet replied, scratching the top of his head as he looked at the little figure in his hand, “but you see, I don’t really do much cursing myself nor have I ever had much of a desire to. I know all of the curse words, but I can’t think of anything to say in place of them because I just - don’t”. There was no denying that Bennet was a creative person, but he was far more hands on than he was verbal. “I need something that is silly and harmless and then I need to train these little guys to only say those things. Or maybe....would it be better if whomever bought them was able to teach them words.....how would I even go about that....hmm?”

[bennet-zonko]

floconstable‌:

“Hey – not you – I’ve been looking for you!” 

“Is this because of the dung bomb I accidentally set of in the common room? I said I was sorry’!”

[bennet-zonko]

darcy-saoirse‌:

To say that she was tired was an understatement - Darcy was exhausted. Her sleep had been plagued with nightmares, and her days filled with trying to hide what was going on from those she was closest to. She had a break in her schedule for the day, and had found a quiet corridor with an open seat near a window. Setting her bag beside her, she slowly laid down, letting her eyes close for a moment.

Sitting there with her eyes closed Darcy looked so peaceful to him. It had been so long since the two of them had actually had a decent conversation and it would be a lie if Bennet said that he wasn’t concerned. He fought to be respectful of her and give her the space that she had asked for but it was so hard. Where was the line between being a concerned friend and being the ex -boyfriend that was still completely enamored? Not talking was a lot easier but it was hard not having her in his life. “Darcy?”

[bennet-zonko]

moony-themarauder‌:

Remus could admit, he was glad to see Bennet Zonko as he rounded the corner of the corridor. He hadn’t much felt like taking away points or telling students off for being out of bed. With his late start, he had worried his partner might not have waited for him either but being that it was evidently Bennet, Remus shouldn’t have been surprised he had. Remus enjoyed partnering with Bennet, even if the other prefect didn’t always do his job very well. It was his light-hearted attitude, consistent smile, and talkative nature that kept Remus in a good mood as well, to the point where the rounds seemed to fly by in no time at all. “I suppose you are!” He said with a smile, looking down curiously at Bennet’s latest contraption. “Remind me not to stick my fingers anywhere near it then. What else are you trying to make it do?”

“See, that’s where I’m stuck” Bennet replied, looking down at the little gnome figure, “I was doing a bit of research on gernumblies in the library and it would seem that they like to dig, bite and have a certain proclivity towards cursing and while I can definitely make a figure that likes to dig and bite cursing isn’t exactly child friendly and children are the main proprietors of our prank items”. As he spoke he began walking down the hallway. He knew that he was supposed to be keeping an eye out for students who were out of bed past curfew but it looked like so far so good and he couldn’t pass up the chance to get Remus’ opinion because his fellow prefect was rather clever and a bit of a known prankster.