A Fate Worse Than Detention {Lovi - CLOSED}

Romulus was missing something. Something quite important and downright impossible for hm to live without. Love. Or, more specifically, bonding time with his beloved grand babies. Feliciano would be easy enough to find for he was, much to Romulus' delight, a grandpapa's boy. Lovino was different. That boy, the one who resembled him to an eerie degree actually acted like -gasp-! he loathed him. The Italian knew however that deep, deep down, the boy must be overflowing with love for him! That must be it.

The difficult part was getting Lovino to spend time with him. Ah! Romulus was struck with a most brilliant plan! Usually not one to abuse his teacher priviledges too much, Romulus assigned his beloved Lovino detention wit him as a way to force spending time together. It was genius! He was smart enough not to list his name, just the room number of the Ancient Runes classroom to ensure that Lovino would show up. It was absolutely fool proof!

Basking in his own brilliance, the professor smiled widely to himself while he waited at his desk, correcting papers.

Ah, it wasn't long before he heard those familiar angry footsteps outside the classroom door. Romulus beamed and called the boy in, grinning from ear to ear. "Lovino~ Take a seat, take a seat! It's been too long since you've talked to Grandpapa!"

Of course, it never crossed his mind that his grandson would be upset that Romulus found a sneaky way to force them to spend time together. In fact, it was unlikely he had figured out that he now taught at Hogwarts. In the older Italian's mind, all surprises are pleasant, why wouldn't this one be as well?

"Help yourself to some candy~!" He gestured to the bowl on his desk.

"Well, of course it was~ And I see it's working!" Yes, it was unnecessary of him to puff his chest out with pride but he simply could not help being so smug at being clever enough to use the system of detention for something nice and pleasant. "Ah, you're not hungry then?" He commented, still bursting with joy that his surly grandchild was spending time with him, be it under false pretenses or not.

"What about a hug for Grandpapa?" The man held out his arms wide. Realizing Lovino was a tad shy in terms of affection, he just latched on to Lovino, snuggling him close but hopefully not suffocatingly tight. "How have you been~? I missed you!"

"Your rejection wounds me so~!" The grandfather continued hugging his grandson tight, barely feeling the aggressive elbowing of the latter. "Aww, you're growling like a puppy, you missed me that much?!" Their was a twinge of a hint in his mind that his older grandchild didn't quite love him but Romulus shoved that thought out of his mind quickly.

Eventually releasing the young man, he stepped back to survey Lovino. It the time that he hadn't seen the boy, he seemed to have grown so much. "Ah, you've gotten my good looks, the young ladies must be tripping over you. Ah! How have you been?"

Romulus was at least hoping Lovino would pretend that he missed his grandfather, just for his sake but there was no such luck. Feeling incredibly wounded by the blow, the older Italian went silent for a moment. It was a stab to his heart when he sent Lovino away and no matter how much he loved Feliciano, it wasn't the same as having both of his grandchildren, his little angels, together. At least at Hogwarts, they both were close enough in proximity that he could visit them. Pity neither of them ended up in Gryffindor though. That would have made popping by even more simple.

"Alas, another stab to the heart!" The man flopped on his desk dramatically. And least Lovino seemed well, that was something.

"So~," the grandfather began, trying to formulate a question, " have you made any friends? I'm sure your cute little scowl doesn't deter anyone from hanging out with you, right?"

Ah, there was Lovino's trademark scowl and silence. Honestly, the kid hadn't changed since he was 6 {of course Romulus could say the exact same about himself but still}. Always with the sulking. At least Lovino was cute enough to make it work. "All that frowning will cause premature wrinkles!" He gasped in concern at him. He didn't want his darling grandchild to suffer from signs of an advanced age so early in life, that would be simply tragic!

Romulus was observant enough to know Lovino silence meant something. That the boy hadn't made any new friends. It was near heartwrenching to contemplate for him to imagine his eldest grandson walking through life, or at least the halls of Hogwarts all alone. " If," the older Italian began, keeping his voice gentle as not to offend him more so than he probably was, " if you get too lonely, you can always hang out with Grandpapa, I won't mind at all!"

"No, no, no silly Lovino! You have got it all wrong! Wrinkles are for those you let life catch up to them and have quit!" Romulus declared this as if it were common sense..and, well, to him it was. Even in his fifties, he would never ever let life wear him down enough to leave creases of his handsome face. Of course, the real reason he had yet to exhibit signs of aging was a mystery but..the Italian gentleman enjoyed thinking of age as an enemy army that he was mercilessly slaughtering single-handedly.

One thing he could never defeat no matter what was the fact he wore his heart on his sleeve and could rarely ever hide emotion. When his grandchild outright rejected the offer of bonding time in favor of being alone, his face fell, if only for a moment."I cannot tolerate the idea of my precious lovino being lonely and, to tell the truth, I haven't exactly made friends here yet either..."

Romulus had never heard such silliness! If you could get wrinkles from smiling, why was Romulus perpetually baby faced? It made no sense. At least Lovino was talking to him, that was more than he could say that they did for years. Romulus tried to writing to Lovino prior to this, even sending piles of birthday and Christmas gifts but it was a rare when his grandchild returned a mere note. Arguing was a vast improvement to silence. Plus, Lovino hadn't run away!

Rubbing the back of his neck in slight embarrassment of his predicament, he let out a hearty chuckle, "it may come as a surprise but Grandpapa's personality tends to overwhelm his peers~" Of course, the ever so lovely Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was mere week from being his new best friend if not more but that wouldn't be too prudent to mention.

" What a terrible suggestion, Lovino!" He was aghast at the mere idea of it. On second thought, perhaps it had potential. "Do you think it would actually work though?"

Of course, there were certain teachers that he thought that his older grandson's plan may actually work on. However, that wouldn't make a true friend. No, Romulus needed someone he could talk with, discuss off color topics to extreme detail with, hug in a masculine fashion and of course, he needed a rough-housing buddy. None of which could be made through force.

On a completely non sequitor note, he actually was going to do something moderately teacher like. He had a few tests that the former Ancient Runes professor had forgotten to hand back and Lovino's was one of them. Sighing, he reached into his desk and got the test, briefly looking it over before passing it to Lovino.

"The old professor had terrible penmanship, huh?".

". . .Damn. Oh well," Romulus gave his trademark winning smile and hearty laugh. He knew it was only a matter of time before one of the other teachers caved in and was completely taken with him. In the mean time, he could just spend some more time with that sweet nurse. Ah, that was a though that cheered him up beyond compare.

It even made him smile through the previous teacher's atrocious penmanship. Seriously, that man wrote a third of the runes in the complete wrong order and made them look absolutely hideous. The beauty of runes done right was why Romulus was initially so in love with the subject, why did that man suck all the beauty out of them? The Italian couldn't make them look a quarter as hideous if he wrote them with his feet!

"Alas, I beg to differ," he cringed, looking at another paper. "How did you learn to write them so well when your former professor wrote like a 3 year old who was given wine?"

It near pained his heart to hear that such a teacher was even employed at Hogwarts, even for such a short period of time! "So few people teach the subject, I'm afraid schools cannot be overly picky with the teachers." It was a mysterious fact that in regards to professions, Charms, Potions, DADA and Transfiguration teachers out numbered Ancient Runes ones 4:1. Such a pity.

He looked at another paper his predecessor had left and he shuddered at the sheer atrocity of his penmanship again. Romulus put those papers in a pile at one side of his desk while he put a stackload of grading he had to do on the other side. Then, he lay belly down on his desk and took out his quill and a small vial of gold ink and got to marking, humming to himself the entire time.

"Ah, how long do you think it will take me to do unteach the bad habits he instilled?" He was curious as the papers he was correcting showed varying degrees of dismal-ity.

He let out a groan at the thought. " A year? Dammit," he near whined. That's the problem with being a new teacher, having to rewire the students minds to adjust to new teaching methods. If only he transferred sooner, there would be far less damage to attempt to undo. Of course, there was no use worrying about the 'if onlys'. Romulus was a man of the present and that's what he needed to focus on!

He stretched out a bit from his lounging position on the desk. It was far more comfortable than anticipated but staying still for so long was trying for him. " How are the rest of your classes?"

"As charming as ever, Lovino," he gave a half grin despite his inner despair. Damage control was rather tedious a job and he was not fond of it in the least. He vaguely wondered if it would be okay to cast a mass Stupefy on all the Ancient Runes students so it would be easier to teach them from scratch. Then again, Romulus had doubts their respective parents would be pleased, let alone the administration. All he wanted to do was to teach his favorite subject in the most fun way possible, not undo a previous professor's mediocre work.

He followed Lovino's eyeline to the clock. Well, it seemed the time was up for the forced socialization. That was a bit sad. Even if Lovino is an ass, he was fond of him, as is his duty as a grandpapa. "Good to here, kiddo and yeah! Bright and early! Make sure to study!" He had half a mind to follow Lovino to Slytherin but, unfortunately, he still had work to complete. Dammit.