Closed Waiting for homesickness to pass

[Sofi Ayre]

Sofi had gone for a walk by herself outside, deciding to settle on a grassy spot and watch the clouds drift lazily across the sky. "Ah, Aotearoa. Land of the long white cloud," she inhaled deeply and dropped her head back to exhale. Hogwarts was a special place to be, but there were moments when the familiar comforts of home felt painfully distant. It was overwhelming here, and she missed the safety of home. Although she could, in theory, find Morrie to talk to about it, she didn’t want to. She wanted calm and quiet, simply enjoying the pleasant weather and letting the feeling of homesickness pass through her, knowing that, in time, it would pass.

 

[Ambrose Webb]

Ambrose had decided today would be a good day to wander around the grounds, try to make sure he could find his way out there if he needed to. He'd made his way over to the pitch, past the greenhouses and even snuck a look at the care of magical creatures area. By the time he'd need to get to any of those places he'd know exactly how to do so. Even if he liked to think he was quite athletic Ambrose had to admit that making his way around the grounds had caused him to grow a bit tired. Something that perhaps wasn't strange when he had spend the last few days just getting new information thrown at him at what felt like all of the time. Moving across the lawn he spotted one of his classmates, which made deciding to take a break or not a lot easier. "Hey," He greeted easily, wrecking his brain for the girl's name without trying to look like he was. "Ssssssofi, right?" He lingered on the s while he was thinking about the name, finishing confident that he had gotten the right one. Remembering names usually weren't something he was terrible at. "Mind if I sit? My legs are not agreeing with me at the moment." Ambrose smiled.

 

[Sofi Ayre]

Sofi looked up, showing the boy a faint smile as he approached. She had been enjoying a peaceful moment in the sunshine, the gentle breeze playing with her hair. His greeting brought her out of her reverie, and she nodded in acknowledgment.

"Yeah, that's me," she replied, returning his smile. "And of course, feel free to sit." Sofi shifted slightly to make room for him, gesturing to the patch of grass beside her. "I feel bad that I don't know your name?" She said, blushing slightly.

 

[Ambrose Webb]

Ambrose grinned when he had managed to get her name right and didn't hesitate to sit down when she offered, easily making himself comfortable. "Nah, no worries." He shrugged when she mentioned not knowing or having remembered his name. "I'm just really good at remembering names." He boasted jokingly. In reality, he tried extra hard to remember all of his classmates names just to make situations like this a whole lot easier. "It's Ambrose."

 

[Sofi Ayre]

Sofi smiled when Ambrose introduced himself and sat down, "Like the custard? Hold on no, I think that's Ambrosia." Sofi corrected herself quickly but still feeling embarrassed and stupid about it. "Good skill to have to remember names, I'm terrible at it. Can't even remember custard branding." She shook her head, feeling pathetic and slipping into silence, the words weren't coming to her easily while she felt ill with homesickness.

 

[Ambrose Webb]

Ambrose raised an eyebrow when she compared him to custard. Or his name, at the very least. He only managed a few seconds before he lost his cool and snorted. "I don't think my parents named me after a custard." He shrugged with a grin. "Ambrosia's also a plant though, which I think is actually what they did name me after even if they won't admit it." He added casually, plucking at the grass a little while he spoke just to keep himself occupied. It took him a minute to realize that they were just sitting there in silence and he made sure to look up and focus his attention back on Sofi. "So what're you doing out here alone? Just chilling?"

 

[Sofi Ayre]

Sofi giggled at Ambrose's reaction, feeling at ease with the boy and not so alone in this scary place. As Ambrose turned the conversation back to her, Sofi shrugged shyly. "Yeah, just enjoying the fresh air and some peace and quiet," she said, casting a glance around the surroundings. "Hogwarts is nice and all, but it's a lot. Sometimes it's nice to escape for a bit, you know?" She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, feeling relaxed in Ambrose's company.

 

[Ambrose Webb]

Ambrose nodded approvingly as he glanced around to see if anything interesting was going on at the grounds before turning back to picking at the grass. It did make him wonder if he had brutally interrupted her peace and quiet and whether she had thought it rude to turn him away but actually wasn't waiting on a conversation. It didn't feel like that though so he reckoned all was good. "Yeah, I get that. I've been doing that since way before Hogwarts." He easily shared. "Makes me appreciate the Ravenclaw common room though, high up in a tower and far away from everything."

 

[Sofi Ayre]

Sofi hadn't considered the other house common rooms until then, she raised an intrigued eyebrow when Ambrose shared that Ravenclaw had a tower. ""Wow, I never knew Ravenclaw had a tower. Our view from the fourth floor is nice, but having a tower is special." she remarked. "Is everything in your common room blue?" she inquired further, interested to know more. "Ours is yellow," While she didn't mind the colour yellow, she preferred blue, "My bedroom at home is blue though." She added, "I share it with my sister and she wouldn't let it be any colour other than white, so when she started at Hogwarts, my mum helped me paint it blue." Sofi explained, concerned she was over sharing slightly, but home was on her mind, prompting her to talk about it.

 

[Ambrose Webb]

By looking at his own common room Ambrose didn't think he could fully imagine what the others would be like, but he got the general idea. House colours everywhere. "Yeah, it's pretty cool." He nodded in agreement. He listened as Sofi moved on to talk about colours and her bedroom at home, although the thing he really only took away from it was her mentioning having a sister. "You have a sister?" Ambrose questioned "How old is she? What house is she in? Is she fun?" He continued, the only child in him burning with questions before circling back to Sofi's original question. "But, yes, ours is mostly blue."

 

[Sofi Ayre]

Sofi hesitated for a moment, unsure of how much to reveal about her sister. "Well, yes, I do have an older sister," she admitted cautiously. "Her name's Morrie, and she's in Slytherin and a second year." Sofi paused, choosing her words carefully. "She's... unique, I guess you could say. We have our differences, but she's family, so..." She trailed off, not wanting to delve into her relationship with Morrie, especially with a new acquaintance. "What about you? Any siblings or, er, pets?" Sofi asked, steering the conversation away from her sister.

 

[Ambrose Webb]

Ambrose listened attentively when Sofi spoke about her sister, although it didn't seem like she liked her very much. Or maybe she just didn't want to talk about it. Either way, it was none of his concern and he easily moved on with the conversation. "No siblings, two chaotic parents, one small dog, a cat and a bunch of chickens." He answered, listing everything he could think of back home. Thinking about their cat suddenly made him realize that he could've brought her to school with her and he was disappointed he hadn't. Although he'd much prefer bringing his dog, but he knew that wasn't an option. "I wouldn't be surprised if my parents are getting a goat or something in my absence though."

 

[Sofi Ayre]

Sofi nodded along to Ambrose talking about his homelife, she was very interested to know more about him. "Are you missing them?" she asked candidly with a smile, picturing his family dynamics and how different Hogwarts must be. The mention of a potential goat brought a chuckle from her. "Well someone has to eat all their food!" She joked, although hesitant that he was going to think she was calling him fat or something, "I mean, like, they feed you right?" She asked, feeling embarrassed, and not for the first time in this conversation.

 

[Ambrose Webb]

Ambrose needed a second to consider Sofi's question. Did he miss his parents? Would he be a terrible kid if he said being away from home didn't bother him all that much? "Not really." He decided to answer truthfully. He loved his parents, sure, but he had to admit it was actually nice to be away from them for a while. "Do you..?" He questioned carefully in response. Perhaps if her sister was a touchy subject her parents were as well. Although she did mention something about her mom helping her paint so maybe it wasn't. "They do. Sometimes." Ambrose replied jokingly. Truth was they did have a habit to forget. He could make his own food whenever they were too busy doing other stuff though, a goat probably couldn't. Then again, there was plenty of grass around their house for a goat to eat.

 

[Sofi Ayre]

Sofi shrugged, her thoughts on her mum, who she missed, then relief at being away from her stepdad. The conversation with Ambrose had seemed to alleviate some of those homesick feelings. "Yeah, maybe just a bit," she conceded with a small smile.

His joke, or what she assumed was a joke, elicited a chuckle from her lips, "Well, thank you, Hogwarts, for the daily feast!" she declared playfully. "We'll never have to go hungry again!"

 

[Ambrose Webb]

Ambrose didn't think it was strange for kids at Hogwarts to be homesick every now and then, especially his own classmates who still had to get used to the idea of boarding school life. Personally, he had already quite grown to like it in the short time he had been here. There were people everywhere which meant it was far easier to find someone to chat to, disuss things he liked rather than be told about stuff that didn't interest him most of the time. Plus, he didn't have to make his own food and was guaranteed it was just there. Yeah, Hogwarts was great. "Honestly though, I think that might be one of my favourite things about school so far." Ambrose laughed. Truth be told there wasn't much he disliked about Hogwarts if he thought about it. He had been worried about sharing a room but the guys in his dorm all seemed alright so those worries were easily discarded. "I guess in general it's not so bad here, huh?"