Closed Echoes From The Past

[Maria Madison]

Maria very rarely left her office, for a variety of reasons. If she was feeling cowardly it would be easy to hide behind the professional ones... being out and about in the castle could threaten the confidentiality situation of students who preferred to keep their sessions with her private, it was far better to stay in her office to be available to students who dropped in without an appointment, there was rarely even time to explore the rest of the castle. All perfectly legitimate reasons, but every one of them an excuse. Maria's real reason for never venturing beyond the library doors, never interacting with her colleagues, was fear. Plain and simple. Every full staff meeting she sat in the back and kept her head down, avoiding the gazes of Professors Kingsley and Styx in particular. It still alarmed Maria a little bit that professors from her own student days were still around at Hogwarts, and whether they remembered her or not, Maria thought it was best to simply avoid the potential confrontation.

Her conversation with Stefan had emboldened her though, and Maria had decided to finally come out of her shell a bit more at work. It had been long enough by now that if Cyndi or Kalif did recognise her, she was fairly sure they had elected to stay silent about her past misdemeanours. One trip to the staff room couldn't hurt, just to test the waters. So Maria had made her way down to the staff room with a box of biscuits she had brought from home, hoping sweet treats would help her perhaps make some friends. She set the biscuits on a table and made herself a cup of tea before sitting down. Maria had brought a book to read while she sipped her tea so it didn't look like she was waiting for someone to come ask for a biscuit, ignoring the therapist in her own head reminding her this wasn't something she should worry so much about. Making friends at work wasn't this hard.

 

[Aeon Summers]

It had been a stressful few weeks for Aeon, and for a change, it had nothing to do with his classwork, or troubles at home with his husband. He had known for years that having children at the school while he was working there would come with its own share of issues. He'd been concerned about any potential bullying, or there being any sort of obvious favoritism towards the kids, which he'd done his best to avoid for the most part. So far, and quite shockingly, it had been relatively smooth sailing. They'd gotten into a fair share of trouble, certainly, but not much more than he'd expected as a parent to two wizarding children. It was nothing compared to the shenanigans kids got up to when he was their age. There had been some wild, wild students, himself included, he was reluctant to admit. It was a very different time then, and watching the two progress through the years brought Aeon back no end to old memories.

It had been inevitable that his kids would want to become animagi, and that Aeon would have to be the one to teach them, but that also meant he would be the one who had to tell them that perhaps they needed to pursue a more realistic goal. Not everyone had the attention span or drive to become an animagus - it simply wasn't for everyone, but broaching that subject seemed like an impossibility when both kids had always assumed they'd be able to turn into animals with no real work or obstacle. Maybe that had been his fault for not laying down the reality of it sooner, but they were kids, he'd had to let them dream. He sighed heavily as he stepped into the professor's common room, away from student eyes in the corridor, though as soon as he realised it wasn't as empty and private as he hoped, he attempted to inhale it back in. "Afternoon." He greeted politely. He didn't see many other staff members around this time, and he'd definitely never seen Maria there before, if memory served. The thought to ask her about his issue briefly crossed his mind, though he imagined she dealt with enough student problems to have him add on his,and they'd barely even spoken as it was. The common room was a place to get away from all the stress of work, which was why he'd come in the first place. The kettle appeared to be freshly boiled, and the man busied himself with whipping up a tea of his own instead. "I was starting to think the library must have had its own secret common room." He joked, in an attempt to make conversation. He'd barely seen much of the other library staff out this way either. It didn't actually seem too farfetched to believe.​

 

[Maria Madison]

Maria looked up from her book as someone entered the common room, smiling and returning Aeon's greeting with a small wave. She chuckled softly at his comment about the library common room, lowering her book a bit. "Oh it does actually, but the librarians keep it secret." She smiled, picking up her own cup of tea for a quick sip. "Stefan only showed me where it was last year, I've just been hiding in my office until recently." She said with a small laugh, before gesturing to the container on the table in front of her. "Biscuit?" She asked, offering them to Aeon.

 

[Aeon Summers]

Aeon gave a small, subdued laugh at Maria's own joke, and set down the kettle to stir at the milk and sugar in his tea. He had to imagine what a librarian's common room might be like, and decided it wouldn't be all that exciting if it had existed. "What's to hide from?" He asked conversationally, walking over to lower his steaming mug down on the table and take a seat for himself, gratefully taking the biscuit the woman offered. "Thanks." ​

 

[Maria Madison]

Maria chuckled lightly at Aeon's comment. "Oh, you know. People, conversations, the imminent threat of a social life." She joked, taking a sip of her tea. Maria knew bringing sweet things in order to make friends was very primary school of her, but she couldn't help a small smile as it did work. "You teach transfiguration, right?" She asked, setting her book aside. "My son's been enjoying your class."

 

[Aeon Summers]

"Ah, yes." Aeon smiled. A social life, at their age? He did miss how easy it had been in his youth, particularly boarding at the castle. Now it was work and family, and little time for anything outside of either. "That's me." He nodded, confirming her question. Despite how much of Transfiguration relied on theory to really understand the subject, over solely waving wands and saying incantations, he tried to make it as enjoyable as he could. It was good to know there were students who enjoyed it. "I'm glad to hear it. You wouldn't think so with the amount of groans and eyerolls I get most days." He laughed lightly, almost giving an eyeroll of his own at the thought of it. Now he knew how his professors had felt, and just how much they were trying to prepare him, rather than inundate him with essays for the sake of essays, as he'd thought at the time. "Finn Madison, right? He's a good kid." He said. It might have not been the whole truth, he honestly didn't know him that well. He hadn't stood out in his class in any way, nor had he acted up. He raised his mug to his lips. "I went to school with a Madison." He commented, taking a sip. He paused in the midst of it as he recalled her, and looked at Maria over the rim. Maria Madison. School counsellor. He squinted.​

 

[Maria Madison]

Maria chuckled softly when Aeon mentioned getting eye-rolls from his students. "Oh, there'll always be kids like that." She said lightly. Groans and eye-rolls were definitely an element of some of her early sessions with new clients, and she felt all too familiar with that element of working with kids. She nodded when Aeon asked if Finn was her son, smiling brightly when he said Finn was a good kid. "He's a bit spacey sometimes, but he does enjoy classes." She said gently, relieved Finn was doing well. She worried about all of her kids, of course, but Finn sometimes felt as though he lived on another planet entirely. Her worries about Finn were washed from her mind at once, though, when Aeon mentioned having gone to school with a Madison. Oh no. Maria didn't remember Aeon from school, but who knew every single person in their school? She had certainly done enough to make herself memorable, though. After years of avoiding Cyndi and Kalif in the hopes of sidestepping uncomfortable conversations about her past, how had she managed to blunder right into one?! "Oh!" She said a little too brightly, tension clear in her voice. "Which... school was that?" Maria asked hopefully, though she knew there was no chance he meant any school other than HNZ, or any Madison other than herself.

 

[Aeon Summers]

Aeon tapped his finger against the porcelain of his cup. Maria had always seemed vaguely familiar. He attributed it to seeing her so infrequently, she was one of those faces that you saw time and time again over a long period, but didn't really know. That "I've seen you somewhere before" thought. He didn't know how he'd never put two and two together. It may have been because Maria Madison, the counsellor, was nothing like Maria Madison, the student, only a couple of years below him. "I went here. Graduated in twenty twenty-eight." He told her, setting his mug back down slowly. "You...hold on. Didn't you go here, too?" He asked. He could barely picture the girl now. It had been what, over twenty years now? Eugh. The thought was an unpleasant one. It had been two decades since he'd left the school, a lot longer than he had realised. When had ten years turned into twenty? It was no wonder his memory of the people from school wasn't as clear.​

 

[Maria Madison]

Maria felt like a deer caught in the headlights, headlights she had been working so hard to dodge for her entire professional career. It was clear from his tone that Aeon had recognised her, that whatever sense of safety she had cultivated in the last near-decade at Hogwarts had all been for nothing. "....I did." She said weakly, shoulders slumping. Maria had always promised herself that if she were recognised for her past crimes she would own up to them, but now that the time had actually come it was humiliating, to be seen again as that angry little girl she had been so many years ago. "I'm... the Maria you're remembering, yes. It's amazing what good therapy can do?" She tried to joke it away with an awkward laugh, hoping Aeon would see the sincerity of what she was saying.

 

[Aeon Summers]

If Maria hadn't looked so familiar, Aeon might never have believed she'd been the same student he'd known of at Hogwarts. He almost wanted to laugh. The difference was astounding. "Really?" He asked, almost the tone of disbelief. He knew it had to be true, but the words escaped him all the same. People were surprising. This what not the person he expected to become a school counsellor. "I imagine pushing people down staircases must have been very therapeutic." He commented, initially thinking he could pass it off as a joke, though he realised the second he'd said it it may have been insensitive. Maria was clearly not the same person she was. "I'm sorry, I can't judge. I stunned a prefect when I was a student, and I was off gallivanting in the forest every other week. The things we could get away with in our day. Now I'm the one stopping kids from doing the same things." He lifted his mug back up, resting it on his palm before taking a sip. "We've all done things we're not proud of."​

 

[Maria Madison]

Any hopes Maria might have held onto about understanding for her past mistakes were quickly dashed by Aeon's comment about pushing people down stairs, her heart sinking to her feet as her face fell. She felt the tension in her shoulders and jaw, the recoil in her body language as she was faced with her worst fears all at once. What was she supposed to do now? She could hardly hold onto credibility if gossip began to spread through the school about her past, however far she had come since those days. She relaxed as Aeon recanted his comment, though only very slightly. "Yes, that's true." She said slowly, tension clear in her voice as she raised her cup to take another sip of tea. "I would appreciate if you didn't... spread this around the school, though. Professional credibility, you understand." She added stiffly, silently cursing herself for being so stupid as to think she was actually safe at Hogwarts.