Are You With Me?

[Avie Mitchell]

Avie loved Hogwarts, but these classes were almost impossible for him, the teen found each one of them so impossibly hard, the only one he managed with was Muggle Studies and that was because Avie's knowledge of muggles was a little better, he had been raised around a muggle sort of environment it was easier for him to understand it, even if he couldn't really do the work. The teen was working hard, as hard as he could but so easily distracted and frustrated by his lack of progress it was difficult to make himself stay focused on the task at hand. He was working hard, or well, Avie's definition of hard but he wasn't making much progress, watching the films was a good method of attempting to learn to read because the boy simply enjoyed the films but he was easily distracted by the colourful moving images to pay too much attention to what was written in the subtitles but there had been small almost unnoticeable improvements, and though Avie couldn't see it he was determined to never give up, and so he was just going to keep going. The teen had always been that kind of person, though he understood so little of the world around him, he was the type of person who just kept going, he hadn't begun thinking of the future but he felt confident in himself that no matter what he'd be okay, despite his lack of brains he'd amassed himself some fairly loyal friends whom he could only imagine would always stand with him and help him once out of the school.

The teen had found himself in the owlery, a lack of better things to do had brought him to this room, but he didn't have a letter to send, without his mother he had no reason to write home, he enjoyed messing around with his dog and spending time with his stuff and his toys but the boy didn't feel like that was home any more, but it didn't matter, he was in the owlery and he messing around with the owls. Throwing up food and throwing the occasional small rock at the owls, causing a little bit of chaos to occur within the room. The teen was just happily playing from after lunch until the sun had begun setting in the distance. He stopped playing as the room was basked in the late afternoon sun, and from within his pocket he pulled out a few of rocks from the deeper part of the lake, a place he hadn't yet managed to return to, too many failed spells had rocked his confidence about it a little. He pulled out all the rocks and lined them up on ledge looking out at the sun, he then placed Rockie amongst them and began to play with the rocks, giving them all little ridiculous names moving them occasional as with the plot of his terrible story, Avie was imaginative but he was hardly a story teller, he just loved fun. The teen grinned happily to himself but he took a moment to look out at the setting sun and was stopped in his fun as tears sprung to his eyes, his mind had shifted so suddenly back to his mother and really just how much he missed her, they hadn't even been as close as Avie imagined they had been, he missed her so much. The teen carried on playing imagining what his mother would say if she was playing with him, he was just trying to get his fun and brush the tears away from his eyes.
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[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Emily had a bad headache again. She seemed to get them more and more often these days, but that wasn't so bad as he exhaustion. It didn't matter what she did, she was always tired, though she always did her best to hide that fact from anyone. She didn't like to admit when things were not going well for her, she was always busy making sure that everything was fine, she didn't have much time for herself anyway, so that was okay. She could always deal with it later if she had to. Emily skipped dinner again as she headed for the owlery. She wasn't hungry anyway, a pattern that was becoming more common, and so she was much more determined to get this letter sent to her mother and step-father. She needed Ciro's advice on some of her classes and he would likely discuss it with her mother anyway. Despite the letter being addressed to him, they shared everything when it came to her. It wasn't that Emily was angry at her mother, she just found Ciro easier to talk to with matters important to her. Her mum got too involved sometimes and didn't allow her to be independent. Not that Emily specifically wanted independence. She just wanted to be able to learn how to help herself. If that meant being independent then so be it.

As she made her way up to the Owlery, Emily yawned, rubbing her temples in attempt to relieve the pressure building behind her eyes. She held the wall as she walked up the stairs, fearful that she may trip in her current state and was relieved when she finally got to the top of the stairs. She wandered silently into the Owlery and though she noticed that someone was in there already, she did not see who it was and so ignored them in favour of finding one of the school owls to deliver her letter to her step-father. She wondered what he dad thought about Ciro. She'd never asked him incase she didn't like his answer, but she knew that there was some tension between them, she'd seen it in the way they spoke about each other. Her father of course had not attended the wedding, though she wasn't even sure he'd been invited. Nate, of course, had attended, though she was sure that was more out of their father making him then of his actual will. Still, she couldn't be too upset with him. At least he'd actually attended. Of course now he didn't speak to her at all, well, not in the way she wanted him to. Emily eventually found the owl she was looking for and tied her letter to it's feet. She yawned quietly. "Don't get lost, kay?"
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[Avie Mitchell]

It wasn't like Avie was overly determined to just push it from his mind, he just found life easier to deal with if he wasn't crying all the time, after the semester where he'd finally found out about his mother's death had just been filled with tears, he had barely been able to hold it in, but it had faded and he had felt better and now only occasionally did he cry, usually when he woke up from a dream about her, or when he was feeling an acute sense of loneliness which was what he felt currently. He wasn't always aware of that feeling, the teen usually kept himself pretty occupied with Lucien and his other friends, and failing those people he usually managed to get himself something to do with Rockie and there was never actually a moment in which the teen wasn't really doing something, but sometimes they hit. He usually just kept playing, wiping the tears furiously from his eyes as he continued to play with the little rocks, forcing himself to focus on them more than anything else, coming up with further elaborate stories which required equally silly voices and needed to be moved even more.

The rocks he was playing with were the best rocks he had, they were the prettiest ones he owned and he was very careful with, he was less careful with the rocks that didn't mean as much to him, that being all the rest of the rocks, he had a few other select few that were better than the others but he didn't always carry them around, he usually sat down in his dorm and played with those, which was better to keep them safe, the rocks he didn't care for where currently being in part flicked from the ledge by him and kicked by Rockie, as he'd been lining up to flick the very important rock for the plot away an owl flutter above him as it flew out of the owlery, this startled the boy so much that he almost knocked Rockie out the window and Avie glanced round until he saw whom had sent the owl fluttering out, Emily! He hadn't seen her in just so long, he didn't even mind about her almost accidentally murdering Rockie, "EMILY!" he exclaimed loudly, startling several of the owls around them, since he'd last really spoken to her, he'd grown several inches and his voice had grown deeper he closed the distance and wrapped his arms around her in a large hug, then he just dragged her over to where he'd been sat, "Come play with me and Rockie!" he told her, taking her to the ledge he'd been playing at and handing a bunch of rocks which he'd gotten from his pocket, not his best rocks but good enough for Emily.
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[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Emily was relieved when the owl fluttered off, taking her letter with it. She watched after it for several seconds before she was suddenly disturbed by a loud shout of her name. The sound racked through her skull, forcing her to cover her ears and cringe through the headache she'd already attained. She closed her eyes along with covering her ears, hoping the extra protection would block out the sound of the noise. Soon was being wrapped up in a hug and though she was initially moved to struggle, she realised only seconds later that it was her good friend Avie who was hugging her and relaxed slightly into the hug. He was taller than her and bigger, it was easy to forget that Avie was older than her when she was with him, though not by much, his attitude towards life was something she wished she could have, but instead she was always on the receiving end of people's problems. It wasn't that she minded of course, she wanted to help her friends in whatever way that she could, but sometimes it was hard to sleep at night because she was worrying about her friends. It was okay though, because Avie gave amazing hugs, if only her brother could hug her the way Avie did.

She was quickly dragged over to where she suspected Avie had been only moments before and she smiled slightly at the appearance of Avie's rocks forming some sort of game for him. She didn't know where Rockie had come from, but she thought it was kind of sweet that it was his best friend. She didn't judge, when she was a child a flobber worm was her best friend and it was probably less useful than Rocky in any case. Trying to ignore her headache and shoving her worry about everything to the back of her mind, Emily sat where she was directed and tried to feel better, just for Avie. Truthfully, she did feel a little better, but not enough really. She was very determined to not be in a bad mood right now. Avie was her friend, she wouldn't be in a bad mood. She looked at the rocks she'd been given and smiled. "Thanks, Avie! These are great!" She wasn't as loud as she would normally be for this level of enthusiasm, but she was trying to prevent her headache from getting worse. "What are we playing?"
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[Avie Mitchell]

Avie didn't care so much if Emily didn't want to play with him, he was fairly use to being rejected in such a fashion but it didn't mean that he wasn't just going to try and play, since he always preferred playing if there were others, it was why he was so thankful for Lucien whom when not kissing his girlfriend played with him. He could convince him to go rock searching, but he had yet to persuade him to join him in going into the lake to have fun and find the even better rocks. Dragging Emily to where he'd been stationed before the teen wiped his eyes for any rements of tears and just focused on the rocks and the fact he very well had a friend he could now play this game with. He just dragged her to where he was, completely oblivious to the fall in her voice or anything like that, just keeping on going as if nothing was wrong at all, since he really didn't see it, he didn't hear and frankly when when he was focused on being able to play he didn't care about how any one else was really feeling.

The teen looked at her and just shrugged, "I was playing battleship," he told her, pointing to the very obvious way in which this was indeed battleships and not something else, he nudged Rockie forward slightly, "This is captain Rockie, he mans the pirate ship, and these rocks are the treasure," he told her, before moving the pieces around so that there would be space for even more rocks, so that Emily could play too, "You can be the enemy ship," he told her, "Just don't actually take the nice rocks," he asked her with a little bit of a small smile, since he really didn't want her to accidentally break one of the nice rocks since he had such trouble getting to them, "A mermaid gave them to me," he told her excitedly, before realigning his troops and beginning to get ready for this war. It would be a simple little game and easy enough to play, as long as Emily was willing to just go along with it.
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[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Emily ignored her headache as she paid attention to what was happening with Avie. Avie was a good friend of hers and she'd known him since she was in first year. Admittedly though, she had to admit that sometimes he annoyed her a little, but that was only when he injured himself because he did something silly. Generally Emily didn't mind playing games with Avie. Nate didn't play games with her anymore and even though she saw her brother all the time, he never really seemed to want to have anything to do with her, which often left her crying in the corridors. But her friends were there to help her most of the time she needed it so she was happy with that. Emily laughed slightly as Avie mentioned what they were playing. Battleship. She didn't think she'd ever really played that so she was mostly eager to learn. "I don't think I've ever played battleship." She told him as she listen to him explain how it went. He mentioned that he was given the rocks by a mermaid and Emily was instantly insanely jealous. "You met a mermaid? That's amazing! I've always wanted to meet a mermaid, maybe you could introduce me to one next time?" She asked, as she set to playing this game with Avie.
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*Months Later*​

Emily sat in the corner of the owlery. She didn't really know what she was doing anymore. Her tear streaked face belied her inner turmoil as she tried desperately to get up and write a letter to her father. She needed guidance from someone, she was having such a hard time dealing with everything. No one had time for her anymore and she just couldn't enjoy any of the things that she used to find enjoyable. Cooking was something that she used to find helpful, she loved being able to feel the pastry move through her fingers, but it had been a long time since she had been able to cook anything without it burning. She hadn't spoken to anyone since returning to school, so much had happened she wouldn't even know where to begin. The crumpled note in her hand fell to the floor as she scrambled to pick it up again. Flyers about her brothers whereabouts were all over the place back home and near the harbour. No one knew where Nate was. Emily had been looking for him at school, hoping that he would show up, but she'd not seen him anywhere. She had the most horrible of feelings in the pit of her stomach, a feeling she was sure would be there always. Her brother was missing and though she knew that she annoyed him, she didn't believe that he would ever do this to her, or their family. Nate wasn't missing.
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[Avie Mitchell]

Avie had been feeling a little annoyed as of late, usually he was pretty up beat, but he'd had this lingering cloud from the OWLs had left him occasionally feeling a little down about it, he had worked hard over the break attempting to improve his reading, but he still struggled a lot with it, he could manage a simple books made for young learning to read children with a little more ease than before, but more complicated than that was still difficult and he felt like this battle to learn up an uphill struggle, he just couldn't catch up to everyone else and he was just left feeling downhearted and occasionally left out. He was just so thankful to have friends who didn't mind, who looked after him and helped him out, Avie was always so happy to see Lucien, his days brightened and the time he spent with Lucien, his best friend was just the best, he hated when he nominated and then voted for him to win biggest heart in the superlatives but then didn't win. He hated the people seemed to not look him, or think he was harsh, Avie thought he was the most amazing friend in the world, and he played with Avie, went rock collecting, though never set foot in the water, as oblivious as Avie could be to things when it came to Lucien he knew he'd found a good friend. Some how despite the fact that he was just so terrible at everything, he'd managed to collect a good amount of friends, and he was always keen to try his best to return the friendship they showed him to them, he knew he couldn't do much, he couldn't give anything to Esme that would be as amazing as the two gifts she'd given him, or support Lucien in the same way he'd done for Avie, just everything he couldn't believe, thinking of his closest friends Avie just so thankful.

As happy as that made him, Avie hadn't really been having a great day, with classes looming and his options limited the teen had decided he needed to really focus, he needed to sit down with his work and really try his hardest but he also just wanted to play, since he knew he would never been good enough to pass anything now that everyone was at this level he was pretty much beyond him. That thought had definitely done nothing to lighten his mood, but the teen was dedicated to making himself feel better about everything, and so he'd decided to visit the one place he always liked to go when his mind clouded too much, which wasn't the lake or around anyone, but up in the Owlery, he found the company of the bird comforting, and it was where he'd waited for the letter from his mother which had never come but there was a safety in the room to him. He'd sat with Esme in the owlery and he'd waited days o end for the letter, and he had no one to write to, no one outside of the school he really wanted to talk to, and it wasn't like writing a letter was even an easy task for him, but he liked the room, it was warm, it had beautiful owls and it provided him with noise and comfort in a way that usually places didn't, it was like when he went swimming and on the few occasions he managed the bubble head charm. Avie opened the door to the room and stepped inside, he wandered straight over to one of the birds currently sat at the window, lightly stroking it's feathers and had been about to just grab it when he glanced around the room, and it was then that he noticed someone very familiar to him sitting in the corner of the owlery, a friend who had previously played with him, and might enjoy playing some more.

"EMILY" he exclaimed loudly and happily, before smiling at her brightly forsaking the owl and moving towards her, as he did this, he noted that she didn't seem too happy that instead of a smile like on his face she was frowning, but she didn't look like Lucien when he was annoyed, or Bothizar, she looked upset. Avie frowned, he didn't like to see her upset so he crouched down in front of her and pulled Rockie out of his pocket and nudged him towards her almost as an extra way of perhaps providing comfort, "Do you want to punch me? That made Bothie feel better when he was upset," Avie barely knew how to deal with his own emotions most of the time, he relied on others, and when Bothie had been upset Bothie had felt anger, so Avie had let him punch him, with his mother Avie had just needed comfort, someone to hold his hand for a little while like Lucien had, but he didn't know which Emily would prefer so he started with the former.
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