Its Getting Late... open

It was such an odd sensation, to have someone pulling her in to try to comfort her. It wasn't unlike when the Professor had given her his hand to hold when he saved her and Isaac from the dementor, keeping them as calm as possible, trying to make them feel safe. This wasn't a teacher though, who's job it was to provide safety and calm and control; this was a student who was doing it of her own volition. All the same, the snake allowed it, even resting her head on the lion's shoulder.

"Maybe the Sorting Hat did put you in Slytherin, but that was because it saw the resourcefulness and ambition in you. Slytherin isn't an evil house, it's all just rumors."

Illowy sniffled, mopping at her face once more with her sleeve, "You can't know that though..." she spoke quietly, trying to maintain whatever steadiness might've been left in her voice, "Why would I do such terrible things, and behave so horribly? What if I'm no better then all of the other terrible witches and wizards that have come out of Slytherin in the past?" perhaps these weren't exactly questions to be asked to someone who appeared to be no more then a first year herself, but Illowy couldn't help it. I kept spilling out of her.

"Its like... everything I do and say... it just hurts people in the end, and I don't know how to stop it. I just do it without even thinking about it, and then I don't even care if I've hurt someone until way later on, but I still don't do anything about it or change it or even try to fix it, I just keep at it like a bloody pissed off imp." as the child spoke, she fiddled and picked at the hem of her sleeve.

Having been met with this type of behavior and hatred against houses, Millie had to take in a second to believe what to say. She was torn. She wanted to shout so much love and happiness that not even the god of rainbows could be sad. However, she also wanted to give genuine advice that she was certain could help this girl in the long run. Either way, she was going to help this girl, whether it be in the long run, or just for tonight. She was determined.

But how was she going to say this? How would she tell this girl that stuff is going to be hard, and that even when the entire world might be against you, you've got to pursue. Keep going, like a marathon, you couldn't stop when you were so close to the finish line, then what was the point of trying?

"You really aren't like those bad wizards in the past. You've got enough sense to not do that stuff, murder and torture people for the fun of it, no, you aren't like that," Millie begged to every god every monster, everyone in existence that everything she said was working. "And, even if the world is against you, it's not going to last for long. You'll have people you know and love, and they love and care about you too."

It was hard to say things, so powerful, when Millie herself had trouble believing them. She said that being strong and courageous wasn't the biggest deal, but aspiring to use courage when you needed to, was. Why was it so difficult to believe herself, if she spoke the words?

"I believe in you."

Meenauh was really deep in her reading that time and she didn't notice neither that the library was empty, nor the last notice that it was getting really late. She would never break the curfew voluntarily unless it would be a life or death matter. She was almost running through the corridors towards the common room when she heard two female voices talking. She halted instantly behind the corner and listened. It was not common for her to eavesdrop, maybe even never did she ever eavesdrop. But that time it was so unexpected that she didn't even think of it twice.

The first very familiar voice was saying something about the Sorting Hat, which worked like a trigger for Meenauh. That was basically the reason she continued to eavesdrop. The other girl was speaking in a soft and steady voice, which seemed to be just slightly failing from time to time. Her monologue sounded a lot like self-flagellation. A very sad and somehow heart-breaking. Meenauh hated people hurting each other, but the girl sounded more like she wanted to confess and try to change. She needed help, not judgement.

Meenauh suddenly remembered that it was most probably after the curfew and she definitely didn't want to get caught and punished for being too much into reading. Meenauh stepped out from the corner and headed to the girls. The familiar voice was Euphrasia, her mysterious fellow Gryffindor. The other girl wore Slytherin robes but was not familiar to her except several times she saw her in the classrooms. Quick memory check failed as she couldn't remember her name. Not that it mattered at that moment. Probably if it was already past-curfew and they'd be caught, she could find out her name later during detention. But she didn't plan to be caught, and she wasn't exactly sure it was past the curfew anyway.

"Hello there," she waved at Euphrasia, "I'm not sure whether you know that it's already very late and probably past the curfew," she lowered down the volume of her voice and directed her speech to the other girl, "And I'm sorry for eavesdropping, but Euphrasia is right, the Sorting Hat has nothing to do with the way you accomplish things. There are pretty naughty students in Gryffindor as well," and she meant Kyle and everything that accompanied him when he decided to show up somewhere, "so don't be afraid to change. You've already accepted your previous actions and you considered them bad. That is a very successful step one, I should say," she smiled at the girl. 

The psychology books she read years before the school had several ways of explaining how people became bad or turned back to the side of the light. There were hundreds of intentions, but Meenauh truly believed every child was pure in nature and they were the time, the place and the circumstances that could spoil a child. But no person was ever born dark. She decided to tell that later if the conversation would continue.

Did the embarrassment never stop? What sort of terrible luck must she have had for yet another student to stumble upon her in such a broken state? And another Gryffindor no less. If Illowy was able to drown in her own mortification, she would have. As the other student approached them, Illowy pulled away from Euphrasia's embrace, pulling her robe tighter around herself and keeping her eyes cast away for hopes that she might hide that fact she'd been crying from the strange lion.

But of course she had over heard them. The girl tried to explain her own thoughts about the situation, but every word rang hollow in Illowy's ears. The snake just shook her head, "How is it a step forward if I recognize it every night, then come morning I continue on doing it without a care? If I saw someone acting the way I do, I know I would think the absolute worst of them." that was the thing she couldn't get herself over. The fact that she hated herself for how she behaved and the terrible things she'd done to people, but she never changed. How could these two seem to think so highly of her and her potential when she was so clearly terrible? How come they didn't hate her for what she'd done as much as she hated herself?

When Meenauh peaked around the corner, it wasn't that surprising to Millie. After getting to know Meenauh better, she realized it happened more often than not. That being said, the two were still pretty decent friends.

She subconsciously waved back, before getting back to the task on hand. Illowy was experiencing self-hatred on personality, but why? Even if someone was mean, it takes time to change yourself, and its such a big job to even recognize and attempt it. Maybe she was just overthinking everything.

"Well, it's still a big step to recognize and change yourself for the better, you're doing great so far!" She reassured. To Millie, it was impossible to prove someone was so amazing if they couldn't get their point across in the first place. It was just that weird for her.

"Mec, baise ça." She muttered under her breath. "What Meenauh said is right, I'm sure with a little bit of help, you can be a way better person,"

She smiled sweetly. Everyone in Hogwarts had a problem. Millie had found a habit of trying to fix it, even if she didn't try, or mean to. She just had an affinity for doing so. Maybe being a therapist would be a good muggle career, if her wand-making one seemed to fail.

The girls kept talking as the time continued its pressure on them as she could feel it approaching like a shadow behind their backs.

Meenauh included herself in the conversation again:

"You say if you would see someone acting the same way you do, you'd think the absolute worst of them — this does sound like an anchoring possibility. There's one technique I can tell you about," she put down her bag onto the ground and set right in front of the Slytherin girl on the floor, prepared to gesture actively as she'd be speaking, "There's such thing called a lucid dream. One of the techniques to acknowledge you're in a dream is to create an object of power in reality. Something only you would consider such and something you can always keep with you. To make this object a continuation of your personality. Something you wouldn't feel alive without. To write the information about that object into your sub-consciousness. And tie your reality to that object. And once you're in a dream, this thing would come up, allowing you to make it the anchor for your consciousness and acknowledge you're in the dream. If you use this technique in real life to prevent your supposed ill-behaviour, it would allow you to stop before you would do something you think is wrong. And change yourself," she stopped speaking, looking right into the girl's eyes, trying to seek understanding and possibly some interest in what she tried explaining to her, "And as Euphrasia said, there are people in this school that would be more than happy to help you become a person you want to become."

Meenauh stood up, starting to feel really nervous about the curfew's shadow over them.

"Guys, we really need to go if we don't want to be in our Common Rooms on time. I know, no one actually asked me to step in, but I don't think detention would fit any of us," she tried to smile nervously and started to walk away, inviting the girls with her, "Let's go."

Meenauh leaves the thread unless the girls decide to continue