#noah when the gangsey first realize hes a ghost

[tiktaaliker]

mannnn ive never had this strong of an urge to draw human people before now but there are some scenes from the raven cycle i want to draw sooooo bad its not even fucking funny!!!!

[torydarixs]

I'm reading blue lily lily blue and my favourites until now is- eVERYTHING

- the gangsey laying on their backs staring up at cabeswater????? blue making blue lilies rain on them?????? you don't realize what these two phrases 'Gansey’s eyes opened as petals landed lightly on his cheeks. As his lips parted, ever-wondering, a petal landed directly on his mouth.' did to me. i can'T explain it

- ronan being forced to whistle or sing while they go into the cave to explore so they don't lose track of time?????? help and the way he just smirked and started with "sQUASH ONE SQUASH TWO—" i lovE HIM

- blue????? and gansey??? trying to be subtle but they're oH SO ANGSTY I CRI. the finger tips touching, the phone calls???????? ohmygOd

- the gray man. that's it. he's amazing he's like— like randall?? bryce's step father?? wow there must be something about hit men and sharpshooters who are unnecessarily kind. when he was teaching calla how to fight and said "i can show you how to unhinge my jaw!!" please i love this man

- gansey and adam's friendship. gansey and ronan's friendship.

- NOAH CZERNY FUCKING FLUFFBALL OF A GHOST I ADORE hiM SO MUCH I WOULD DIE FOR HIM AND NO I DON'T CARE THAT HE'S ALREADY DEAD. HE LOVES GLITTER I'M CRYINF. AND HE LOVES B L UE EE. AND WHEN HE SHOWED UP TO HER SCHOOL ON HER FIRST DAY AND BLATANTLY EAVESDROPPED AND COMMENTED WHILE SHE WAS WITH THE COUNCILLOR????? help. "RuDE" "you should see her shoEs. poiNTy" "i'd be wAY more suNSHiney if i was a counselor" yes my love of course no doubt you should be hired right away

in conclusion? i love them

maggie not giving us the full version of the squash song is a hate crime.

BLUE AND GANSEY AND THEIR FINGERTIPS AND "this was not allowed" AND "oh, jane" AND "you shouldn't, but i hope you do" AND THE GLANCES AND THE YEARNING AND OH MY GOD ANOTHER DAY GOING INSANE OVER THEM

i loVE the gray man like dude really just showed up and went "uh hey so i killed your friend's father but he was an asshole anyway and like blue your mom is pretty so yay?" and they all just went along with it i adORe him (also bryce's step father and gray man YES i fucking love parallels)

the gangsey's friendship, period. blue and her boys were all in love with each other and all that *wipes tears*

NOAH CZERNY I WOULD DIE FOR HIM HE'S SO ADORABLE HE'S LITERAL SUNSHINE HE'S SO SMOL AND BABY AND FLOOF AND CUTE AND JUST AKSJDHF I LOVE HIM HE'S MY HEART MY LOVE MY REASON FOR EXISTING

[womantryingtoexist]

The Raven Gang at Hogwarts

I am aware that there are probably hundreds of hot takes out there regarding The Raven Cycle and Harry Potter. But that also means that you have not yet heard mine! ^^

Ronan: 

Son of a Dreamer, Son of a Dream. His father is a powerful wizard, profoundly talented in Charms. Many whisper that his wife is just a charm brought to life. But that does not matter to young Ronan. He grows up surrounded by magic, being magic - even though Declan is the one who has all the “adult” talks with Niall. Even though Declan is a Squib (Mom said, he shouldn`t use that word but it is true).

When Ronan gets to Hogwarts, the Hat is fast to sort him into Gryffindor. Ronan is a bit put out, with his father a proud Slytherin and his mother a Hufflepuff. But then again? Daring and Brave? That is something Ronan can get behind on. He is only a little bit annoyed that he doesn`t get to share a dorm with his best friend Gansey.

Gansey:

Gansey is actually a half-blood. And proud of it. His father comes from a long line of wizards dating back to Merlin and his mother is a fierce muggle politician who could not resist the charming wizard with an obsession for everything muggle. The only draw back was, that Gansey seemed to be graced with bad luck.

His death had been foretold numerous times and the summer before he gets to attend Hogwarts that seems to finally come true. He dies, for approximately 15 seconds, before his father is able to heal him. Everybody is relieved - his foretold death is not permanent after all. The only one not content with that conclusion is Gansey himself. He knows that there is something more to it. Which is why the Sorting Hat wastes no time to put Gansey`s searching mind into Ravenclaw.

Adam:

Adam walks into Hogwarts and almost wants to back out again. He does not belong at all. Being already fiercely independent at the age of eleven, the idea of a magical school out of his comfort zone does not overjoy him. He is muggle born after all, part of the dirty apartments of Hodge Hill in Birmingham, poorest of the poor. 

He talks to no one on his way to Hogwarts. There is no need to. He sees their glances, he hears their whispers. He is dirt even for the wizards. Which is why he is not surprised to land in Slytherin (though, he does not yet understand the disgust of his classmates  - but he will soon).

 Blue:

Blue is not a Squip. She is not. She may not be graced with the power of Divination like the rest of her family, and her magic might be a bit on the weaker side, but she is not a Squip. Her father is not here, she lives in Hogsmeade and her will to throw down at any time, makes her the perfect witch.

She is even a little bit sad, when the school year begins because she does not take the Hogwarts Express, because she is not going to stay in the castle but with the Sorting Hat putting her into Gryffindor everything seems possible. She is a Sargent after all - and a Sargent does not take shit.

Noah:

The friendly Hufflepuff ghost spent most of his time in the Ravenclaw Dormitory and Gansey had not realized for way to long that Noah was not only not in his house but also dead. But a quick friendship was found nonetheless.

Ronan adored Noah. The two of them were fast friends and while Gansey asked all sorts of questions about the first wizarding war and the history of this place, Ronan only wanted to have fun.

It was fun, until the Boy Who Lived joined the school. Gansey and Ronan were third years at this point, and they had many friends but where closest to each other. Harry Potter did not interest them at first.

But then in their forth year things changed. The chamber of secrets was opened. And Slytherin got really hostile. Gansey started to notice that Gryffindor girl (she was a Chaser - and so good at it) and Ronan noticed that Slytherin boy who was always alone.

Noah bullied them into talking to them. 

Adam Parrish had not had a problem in Slytherin until that weasel of a boy Draco Malfoy appeared. His classmates had been cold but not hostile. It had been easy to stay the best - and even easier to hide the bruises he came back with after the holidays. But not anymore. Adam was almost relieved when the Gryffindor boy spoke with him. 

Blue Sargent was loud. That was what everyone told her. She was also okay with that. Being load was better than being overlooked after all. She likes the twins (and pitied them because they had to share with Ronan Lynch) and when the Boy Who Lived came along, she had a weird feeling. Fate was a lucky thing. She did almost punch Richard Gansey III in the face, however, when he came and asked for a date.

From three to five.

Their fifth year, Henry joined.

Henry:

When his mother told him that he would have to change schools, Henry imagined a different magic school, maybe in Korea instead of Canada. But no, his mother send him to Hogwarts. A school so small and obscure, he knew instantly that his mother wanted for him to do something.

Things had heated up in Europe the last few years with the Dark Side rising again. And his mother had no need for a war, so Henry should find information on how to stop that. Because people might stop buying, if they were dying. 

And so he went. Ravenclaw, said the silly Talking Hat, with a hint of Slytherin. Henry only grinned. Ravenclaw it was. 

He made fast friends with Richard Gansey, who seemed to be his own kind of wonder and yet not the Boy Who Lived. Ronan Lynch was a bit mean but overall enjoyable. That Adam Parrish guy was way to good at Divination - and at taking Extracurriculars. Blue Sargent was wicked and Henry was a tiny bit in love with her. But who wasn`t? Especially since she was currently dating Adam. (And Henry did notice, that this fact turned both Gansey AND Ronan into pinning idiots). And Noah? Noah loved Henry.

And then the shit hit the fan.

Ronan`s dad was murdered during the summer holidays. Voldemort came back. Ronan was not the same. Adam could no longer evade the questions - and yet did not leave. Persephone died - leaving a legacy for Adam - and a prophecy for Gansey: He would die again. Relationships broke. 

Their last year brought Umbrigde. And political chaos. Ronan knew his father had been involved in the last war - he knew Declan was now. Henry was told to leave - but he couldn`t. Not anymore. A magical assassin showed up at Blues doorstep. All of Adams precautions said Death. 

The Boy who lived survived, that year at least. 

And The Gangsey went into hiding. There has been attacks and they felt no longer safe. Adam was afraid of going home (what even was that?) but what else could they do? 

The year after Hogwarts was spent planning. They found Noahs killer, the made deals with old things, they sold their souls. They made sure that the artifact their families dealt with would not count in this war. But they did so silently. 

Until that was no longer possible. Because they were called. The Boy Who Lived had sent the sign. The sign for the Last Battle. 

The Battle of Hogwarts.  

[this-vicinityof-insanity]

I don’t think this song should make you cry.

A Noah Czerny Tragedy

Ronan dreams blue and iPod because “Jesus Sargent how are you supposed to listen to music?”

It not just any iPod though, it has every and any song ever to exist on it. Much like a Spotify but #better.

Not only does it have that, it never runs out of battery.

He and the Gangsey decide to give it to her for her birthday and they all pitch in some way.

Adam buys a pair of nice head phones (nice enough for him to afford)

Gansey buys a Bluetooth speaker “ha! It’s Bluetooth. Get it?”

No one thinks it’s funny.

Henry decides he’s going to steal the iPod and make some playlists for her. Including one devoted to his favorites (madona makes up the majority of it)

Naturally he drags everyone into it.

Gansey is quick to make an idiotic playlist of his favorite songs too. It’s mostly classic rock and 90’s pop. Of corse classical music gets its own playlist labeled “Study time!”

May I point out that he definitely adds Lovefool by The Cardigans to one of them

Ronan doesn’t have the iPod for too long because he already knows what music he likes.

He make two playlists. One with his usual EDM.

And one entirely consisting on The Murder Squash song with different album covers “Sargent is gonna love this fucker.”

Adam had never put too much thought into his music tastes (other than what was playing at Boyd’s, and Ronan’s) so he has some fun with it.

He has it for a while, “Parrish you realize it’s not your present?”

He uses it while driving, and working, and studying.

At first he just goes through the other playlists everyone else made. Seeing what he likes and what he doesn’t.

The one time he listened to Henry’s he came home humming Express Yourself by Madonna and Ronan had a seizure.

When he got to Ronan’s Murder Squash playlist he didn’t even change it. “It reminds me of you and Noah.”

He ends up having a jumbled and messy Playlist, it’s a mix of everyone else’s favorites and a bit of Alternative pop or Folk. He loves it and makes a note to ask for an iPod from Ronan later.

Blue’s birthday finally rolls around and Ronan hands it over in a bright purple bag that also has the headphones and Bluetooth speaker.

Needless to say she loves it. “Where’s the charger?”

“Doesn’t need one, runs on dream energy”

“Adam is right, you are such a sap Lynch.”

“Fuck you too asshole.”

Blue uses it all the time. She throughly goes through everyone’s playlists (except for the Murder Squash one which she promptly pauses)

It makes her happy to know her friends care so much.

She finally comes to a playlist titled “Remembered.”

Blue plays it. There is one song. Sk8ter Boi.

Blue cries. And cries as Avril Lavigne pounds out of her speaker.

When she asks the Gang who made the playlist everyone shakes their head no.

Blue listens to the song again. Then again. She says “hello.” to nothing at all and then, “see ya later.”

First of all the song came out after Noah had died but I digress. Second of all yes I know he’s gone but I’d like to think that he came back for long enough to make a playlist consisting of one song.

He just wants to let everyone know that he’s good and happy.

P.s Blue puts a little glittery ghost sticker on the back of the iPod after that.

[gaybluesargent]

(I know I've already left you an ask and a ficlet prompt so like, no pressure if u don't get to this second ask lol) Imagine if by some Cabeswater magic the gangsey got to meet a small toddler Gansey?? Fluff points if he's younger than 10, angst points if he's 10 and freshly post-death :')

(ok this turned into Way More than ‘the gang meets kid!gansey’ oops. so! have a “here’s how i thought gansey’s death & resurrection was going to be in trk” ficlet! sad, deathy, gory content under the readmore, but with a hopeful ending.)

it’s a routine trip to cabeswater, or as routine as any trip to cabeswater is, and the gang’s all here.

well, not all here. gansey’s not here. because gansey died. 

and noah’s not here either, but none of them could blame him. if they could disappear or skip ahead to a better part, they certainly would too.

they’ve been back to cabeswater a few times since gansey died by blue’s kiss, and they don’t really know what they’re looking for. something. anything. gansey. a miracle. because if miracles happened anywhere, cabeswater seemed like the place.

but it’s quiet without him. like the magic is mourning, too. 

they walk for a while, waiting. waiting for— for— they don’t know. but whatever it is, it’s not here. there’s nothing but trees and changing seasons, time and space left vacant by loss. 

the air is hotter around ronan, anger swelling with every pained heartbeat. 

the grass wilts under adam’s steps, sorrow and frustration leeching life out of the place he worked so hard to serve. 

sound moves slower around henry, the acoustics of being underwater, shell-shocked confusion that wont fade. 

and then there’s blue, light bending away from her as she walks under canopies of leaves. 

whatever part of her usually reflected and amplified, she now kept close to her chest. she’d seen what her magic could do, and with so much grief inside of her and her friends and this place… she imagined a cord being yanked from a wall, and scissors snipping a line of thread, and a wound being sewn shut. closed and cut-off. it was safer that way.

they didn’t speak, but they didn’t have to. every one of them was wondering the same thing: 

what’s the point of magic, if not this? if not second-chances and survival and saving?

cabeswater knew why gansey had died: to save it from the demon. to save everything from the demon. 

and it knew, now, that they wanted their king back.

time was cabeswater’s tool, a craft in its hands, clay and moldable. as was will. as was life. 

and cabeswater was always a good listener.

ronan shouldered through dead winter branches and broke into a sweltering spring. setting sun slanted through the trees as they entered a clearing, if it could be called that—with four of them, the space was crowded.

immediately, blue’s skin prickled with goosebumps, a sweet sickness filling her stomach. “stop,” she said, only barely, because there was a boy sleeping at the base of a tree a few feet away.

they stilled, stopped, followed her gaze to the sleeping boy, finely-clothed and slight.

and then time stilled, stopped, as they realized the boy was not sleeping but dead. 

he lay in a pile of browned leaves, curled away from them and away from the sky like an assault had come from above. the angle of his body was wrong, tight but motionless, a subject painted into place on a dynamic environment, leaves still rustling and shadows still shifting around him. 

adam was the first to step toward him, but ronan got to him first. the look on his face confirmed what blue couldn’t bear to know. 

adam stooped and picked up a handful of leaves. under closer inspection, they were only leaves because of the shadows— in actuality, they were hornets, as dead as the boy they killed.

henry stooped and picked up a pair of tiny wireframe glasses. the lens was missing from the left eye. 

it was silent as the horror hit all of them one by one, and with barely a breath, henry asked the forest, “why?”

and then the wind blew, forcing them all to shield their eyes against the sting, scattering the dead hornets from adam’s palm. 

and when they looked up, there was someone else. someone their age, wearing a dirty aglionby uniform. 

for a moment, he was unrecognizable, because they knew him only as a ghost and he wasn’t that yet — not something dead, but something that should’ve been, his face misshapen and pouring blood, his teeth askew through his hollow cheek.

noah appraised each of them sadly for a moment, looking apologetic. but then he sat down on the ground next to gansey, resting a hand against gansey’s shoulder.

all of them heard it at the same time, echoing inside their head, rattling into their bones. you will live because of glendower. someone else on the ley line is dying when they should not, and so you will live when you should not.

everything fell silent again, and then noah was gone. 

and then gansey was waking up.

and breathing, crying, sobbing. 

and so was blue, before she could stop herself. 

henry put the glasses back on the ground next to gansey. he grabbed for them, and even as he palmed them back onto his face with quaking, clumsy hands, he didn’t seem to see them. 

adam couldn’t take his eyes off gansey, watching him sit up and shake the dead hornets out of his sleeves, watching as his panic crystalized into something horribly calm and vacant. adam lost the ground under his feet, so he leaned his back against a tree to stay standing. 

ronan came to life all at once, anger invigorated into fury and rage. words poured from his mouth, curses and latin and a language that didn’t exist. 

they didn’t have to understand it to know what he was saying, though. asking, really. begging. 

why?

the trees didn’t answer. not as young gansey stood to his feet and then sank back to the ground, curled into himself, shaking, looking much younger than the age of 10. not as he eventually tried again, getting back to his feet and only barely remembering to wipe the tears from his cheeks before he started walking back through the trees. 

they didn’t follow him, because cabeswater wouldn’t let them or because they couldn’t bear to. 

they just stayed, watching as the wind spread the dead hornets across the soil like seeds, watching as night fell faster than could’ve been possible. 

waiting. for something. anything. gansey. a miracle. because cabeswater was showing them this for a reason. 

it was summer. fall. winter. and then the trees fell and blood washed around their ankles in a flood, and they had no choice but to run — run upstream, to where the river flowed with blue petals, to where the blood washed up on a roadside.

to where gansey lay in the grass, dead again. 

dead again. blue swallowed a scream. why? had she not seen it enough in her dreams? was there something they’d missed, somehow?

but the scene was different, slightly. adam was the first to point it out. “we’re not here,” he said, and he was right. gansey had no court around him — he lay all alone.

and on his chest lay a book. as they crossed the street and stepped to his side, they saw it was his journal, opened to an empty page. 

blue knew every page of his journal, and she knew that none were empty. biting back tears, she slid the book out from under his cold hand. 

there was a pencil placed behind the cover. blinking hard, she flipped to it. 

every page was blank, until the first one.

on the inside of the cover was “you will live because of glendower,” written in noah’s handwriting.

and on the first page, in gansey’s handwriting, were the words: “how to wake a king.” 

the beginning of a list, followed by a bullet point on an empty line. 

blue showed the others, her pulse picking up under her skin.

they all read it, passed it. it ended in adam’s hands. 

he read it and then read it again. “cabeswater,” he said, and his voice was different — quiet but powerful, grief like an arrow quivered in his throat and finally let loose. “how?”

not why. how. 

and around them, the trees exploded with sound.

they looked to ronan, the air electric as the trees spoke into them with words they didn’t know. 

ronan didn’t hesitate before snatching the journal from adam’s hands and beginning to scribble down translations. 

his hand moved wildly, trying to keep up with the instructions they were given. but as he wrote, a grin dawned on his face, like the sun on the horizon after the longest night.

over the noise of the trees and her heartbeat, blue shouted, “can we?”

ronan looked up for just a moment, his eyes blazing with hope, and then he nodded. 

at their feet, gansey’s corpse was gone. all that was left was his voice, cutting through the voice of cabeswater, clear and real and calling:

“find me.”

[seekthemist]

FOR THE CHARACTER ASK MEME: adam and gansey 😏😏

“What character ask meme?” THIS CHARACTER ASK MEME!

ADAM:

How I feel about this characterBaaaaaabbbbyyy, I love him so much and his character development was awesome and all his Cabeswater-hands-and-eyes scenes in the books were super epic. I hope he will go on to kick everyone asses because that’s the Adam Parrish we all deserve.

All the people I ship romantically with this characterI’m an heavy multishipper and I can be persuaded to MANY configurations, threesomes and the like. My main one-to-one characters for Adam are Ronan and Gansey, though!

My non-romantic OTP for this characterThe reason I did not include Blue in the aforementioned list is that I really love the way they got to the realization they really like each other but they wouldn’t be the best match. I know it was shaky, and Adam got hurt and it was complicated by Blue’s attraction to Gansey but I really adore they relationship as friends.Also, we need to mention Adam’s relationship with Opal because even though we only saw a tiny bit of it, it was AWWWW.

My unpopular opinion about this characterI’m not sure what counts as a “popular opinion” on Adam (I’m bad at following all the fandom headcanons), but one thing I want to point out is that, for as much as I love Adam’s character, I think his inability of asking for help and letting other people provide for him is not something to be praised. It’s overboard from pride and autonomy and it’s harmful both for him and for the people that care for him. So my maybe unpopular opinion is that that’s a character flaw and it’s the type of behaviour that makes you super irritating in real life even though it‘s more “excused” in fiction settings.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.My wish for Adam is for him to overcome his necessity to “perform” success in favour of actually reaching a state when he’s fulfilling his ambitions in the purest form and achieving something that makes him genuanely content, rather than “something that would sound good among rich and successful people”.

GANSEY:

How I feel about this characterMy lovely awkward ducking, you can try and snatch him off my cold, dead hands because, honestly, aw.

All the people I ship romantically with this characterLOL, another case of VIRTUALLY EVERYONE, but this time it’s…like…the whole Gangsey, even in one-on-one? We can have Gansey/Blue-Adam-Ronan-Henry for as much as I’m concerned. I must admit I don’t particularly ship him with Noah, but…

My non-romantic OTP for this character…Noah is definitely my best bet for the non-romantic OTP, because his and Gansey’s bond is SO TOUCHING and a bit tragic and Noah saved his life and at the same time Gansey provided the first kinship after 7 dead years because he saw this ghost boy and went like “yeah of course you’re part of the family and I NEED YOU to live here” and…sob. So good. So pure.

My unpopular opinion about this characterAgain, never sure of what counts as a popular headcanon, but one thing I’ve seen is “Gansey basically estranges himself from his family because he wants all out from the social world” and…I don’t know, I think he wouldn’t? Not so completely, not if he gets himself out of the UBER STRESS he lived in for years. His family is a bit of a theatre and they are all posh rich fuckers but I don’t think they don’t love each other and I don’t think Gansey doesn’t enjoy a bit of “Richard Gansey III” performance every once in a while. He likes being good at stuff, and for better or worse it’s good at that as well and it’s a family-bonding-mess.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.What I wished for Gansey is A PROPER EXPLAINED DEATH AND RESURRECTION and something WAY clearer in terms of how is it to die and come back to life out of a sense of “responsability” to protect his found family only to found that Noah ended up as a big collateral damage and maybe he was always meant to. Basically, I wished for a proper conclusion of his crazy character arc, instead of the cut at the end of TRK.

[ghosthunter721]

Lost Souls - The Raven Cycle

Summary:  The Gangsey, two weeks later, talking about what *they think* happened to Noah. Post-TRK, Pre-Epilogue.

Words: 1,371

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11374242

Monmouth Manufacturing was filled up with the usual friend group. It had been two weeks since Gansey died, since Cabsewater sacrificed itself to save him, since Adam nearly killed Ronan, since they discovered the dust left over from Glendower’s long dead self. It was a Sunday afternoon and the weather had a sharp chill that was seeping in through the windows, warning of the colder weather that was very quickly approaching.

Life had, oddly enough, continued after the final discovery of Glendower had been acknowledge. Senior year had kept forcing each one of them to give their attention to school, jobs had kept both Blue and Adam away from the group for the most time. Although, they still had come by Nino’s at times to bug her, there was still an unspoken question surrounding them all.

Now what?

Today was a quiet day for everyone. Adam, astonishingly, managed to not have to work at any of his three jobs. So he sat up against a wall, hands intertwined with Ronan’s, legs casually touching. The two boys only sort of watching Henry as he acted out something that he found hilarious that happened at school on Friday. Blue didn’t have to work at Nino’s today, and she already took care of her dog walks in the morning, so today found her and Gansey sitting up on the couch, hands also intertwined with one another, as Blue had her head resting on Gansey’s shoulder.

Silence fell on them once again, Henry had gotten a short laugh out of everyone – Ronan included – and he deemed that a success for the day. He crouched down next to the miniature model of Henrietta that was in the middle of the room, examining it once again. RoboBee was buzzing around the small model of the town as well, landing down on Monmouth Manufacturing’s roof and shutting down.

It was a couple minutes of silence before Blue sighed and sat up from Gansey’s shoulder, “Noah isn’t coming back, is he?” She was speaking softly, but Monmouth had been holding its breath for this question. It was in the back of everyone’s mind, which was evident when eyes all turned towards where Noah bedroom door was still closed. No one had seen Noah in two weeks, the last time that anyone saw him was when Gansey was brought to Gwenllian the day he died for the second time.

The question hung in the air, no one wanted to confirm what they all thought. So there it sat, sitting on each person’s shoulders, waiting for someone to break first. Even Henry, who never had the chance to meet Noah, was well aware of what Noah meant to his friends.

Finally, Ronan broke first, Adam felt him tense, “Well I fucking guess so. Noah has never been gone this fucking long before.” Even with as sharp as Ronan said it, almost like he didn’t care, Adam knew different. Ronan cared so much about Noah, it was hard for him to vocalize that, though – so his anger came shining through.

Gansey swallowed roughly, “Do you possibly think-” His voice cracked a bit, he paused and cleared himself before continuing, voice still rocky, “Do you possibly think it is because of Cabeswater?” Because it sacrificed itself to save my life? Eyes turned towards Gansey, contemplating the hidden meaning behind his question.

“Noah continued because of the ley lines, not Cabeswater.” Adam said, trying to simultaneously make Gansey and Ronan – who had been secretly wanting to put Cabeswater back together – feel better, “The ley lines are still intact.”

“Then why-” Ronan started, then stopped, looking away from Adam and his friends and instead off to where Noah’s old room used to be, as if expecting Noah to walk out of it at any moment.

“If Noah could come back, he would’ve by now.” Blue said, still speaking softly, but confidently, “If he hasn’t come back, there has to be a reason for it. Something had to have happened.”

Ronan turned his steely eyes on Blue, “What could he have done, Sargent? He was already a fucking ghost of his ghost self with Gansey last saw him.” Ronan thought back to the last time that he had been with Noah, it was right after he found his mom dead in Cabeswater. Ronan was in a shock and sat in his car, Noah kept trying to talk to him, but Ronan couldn’t focus on anything that the smudgy boy was saying. All Ronan could keep thinking about and seeing was his dead mother. Noah was in a bad place as well, he was just a trick of the light at that point. Ronan thought about what he would have said to Noah if he had realized that was the last time that he was going to ever see him.

The comment that Ronan made was something that everyone recognized. Noah was almost gone when they all last saw him, but they had other things on their plates. No one realized that, on that horrible day when they all lost so much, they would have to add Noah to their list.

A silence fell again, everyone finally taking in that Noah was actually gone. No one in that room ever got to know Noah as he was alive, when he was more, but they all got to know the ghost of himself. They all liked that Noah. There was a comfort in that Noah that everyone loved deeply. It struck them all hard and sudden, two weeks later, that they had just lost the ghost boy who had been so valuable to their entire journey.

Henry, finally speaking for the first time, broke the solemn silence, “I don’t know if I have a right to talk about this specific topic,” Henry started, which caused Ronan to nearly lash out with him with a snarky comment, but Adam squeezed his hand and he stopped. “So forgive me, but I don’t think we will ever really know what Noah did for you all. What is important, I think, is to know that whatever he did that made him vanish, he did it to protect everyone. I’ve heard the way that you all talked about him, and I don’t think that he would have left for any other reason besides to save you in one way or another.” Henry paused, a small smile, which once again made Ronan want to argue with him, “Who knows? Maybe Noah used his ghost magic to go back in time and bring you all together in the first place.”

For the fourth time, a silence fell over the room. Magic was not a new topic for anyone, from the dreamer and the magician, to the mirror and the king. They had all seen magic at work. There was a moment when everyone thought about Noah, and what he could have done. No one could completely turn down Henry’s thought that Noah brought them together. Sure, they couldn’t think of a specific event, but that didn’t mean it didn’t happen. For all of them, it felt like Noah had just been so engrained in their lives, always there, even if he wasn’t saying anything.

Without saying another word, Henry stood up from where he was still next to the miniature model of Henrietta, and walked into the kitchen/bathroom/laundry room. He pulled out five drinks from the fridge before walking back into the room. Everyone gave him a confused look as he handed them out to everyone, then, standing in the middle of the room with his drink raised high, he loudly proclaimed, “To Noah, I didn’t get to know you, but thank you for your sacrifice, whatever that may have been.”

There was only a beat of silence, before Gansey first raised his drink, which was quickly followed by everyone else, “To Noah.” They all said loudly, hoping that, wherever Noah was, whatever Noah may be now, he could know that they were all toasting him. They all hoped that he knew that they were all thinking about how grateful that they were for him. They all hoped that he knew just how much they all loved and missed their smudgy ghost friend.