Fin Fostered Affirmation PV Maria

The week before Valentine’s found Maria in the Owlery. It was only about two months after she’d been home, but after her mother’s new last December, she’d figured it would be a good time to write home. Mostly to check on her father.

She could tell the news shook him up a bit, even when he’d known much earlier than she did. His usual calm demeanor looked shaken, and he was more distracted than usual. Perhaps the prospect of a new baby was scarier than expected. His daughter wondered why he was so uncomfortable, especially when he and she got along quite well when they met. But the young girl had yet to consider that a newborn was much different from a 2 year old. She could already walk and speak a few phrases unlike her future sibling would in the first few months.

Maria herself wasn’t quite sure about how she felt about the matter. But she was sure that things might change. Even when her mother was still three months along she was already acting differently. She was much more tired than usual, and she got sick a lot. She also got upset a lot, and sometimes her mood changed from being so sad to suddenly getting angry at the slightest details. Chester had gotten used to it, so he handled it well now, but it made Maria upset. Her father reassured her that her mother was trying her best and sometimes had no control over it, and it did help, but she was still worrying to her.
Presently she was attaching her letters and cards, one each for her parents to an owl. Soon it flew off into the quickly darkening sky with her mail in tow, on its way to Hillingdon. As she pulled her robes closer to combat the February chill she wished it a safe flight. Hopefully there wouldn’t be too many planes around.

With a quick survey of her surroundings, she managed lock eyes with a boy with messy brown hair. He wasn’t much taller than her, which was a pleasant surprise. Most boys around the school were a good few inches higher. She gave him a small smile and held up a hand in greeting.

Hexcode= #3c78d8

Locking eyes with a brown-eyed witch, Sylvain found himself incapable of withdrawing his own misty gaze. As her tan fingers wiggled a wave to greet him, he mirrored her reaction by moving his own hand side to side. Albeit this resulted in awkwardly spilling his unsecured letters all over the ground of the owlery. Immediately dropping down to scoop up the fallen parcels, Sylvain gathered the hand constructed hearts that had been exposed to the cold brick that made up the floor before they had a chance to get too cold. Rising nervously, the lad's fingers grew uncontrollably nervous as the overwhelming feeling of being observed made him ever more uncomfortable.

Sylvain was pressured somewhat to start a conversation simply by the awkward nature of their acquaintance. Motioning to regain some amount of control, Sylvain introduced himself as he re-organized the stack red lettered media. This calmly restored function to the wiles of his teenage digits. "M'name's Sylvain Indarys, but you can call me Syl, on account of it being simpler to say." It was important to get one's name preferences correct right out of the gate. Shamefully, the wistful scholar learned that lesson the hard way when he mistakenly called Flash Holmwood by his forbidden name, Demetrius. "What can I call you?"

Query outstanding, Sylvain assumed it was his turn to piece together what he could from looking her over. Only a few measurements his lesser in height, the brunette witch had a laid back sort of feeling about the way she kept her appearance. This told Sylvain she was observant and cared about first impressions, but wasn't so uptight that she felt it necessary to correct every single fine detail of her whole wardrobe. Sylvain was much the opposite, someone who took great pride in the detailed and organized fashion with which he wore his clothes, but cared little for first impressions, as they were rarely representative of the person as a whole. His robes would be clean but also each garment appropriately worn, tucked, tied, folded or pleated as outlined by the rules.

Securing his own letters, Sylvain sent the owls off after another round of cooing, scritching, and petting. Amidst the mailing process, Sylvain found the courage to pry into the smiling west tower correspondent's business. "You write letters often?" He himself wrote whenever he got the chance, but here lately with the holidays had taken a break. If not for his own sanity, for the owls who likely spent much of December and January flying gifts. Whatever stress that placed on the owls was plenty enough for Sylvain to excuse the laziness of his holiday at Hogwarts.

@Maria Dee

@Sylvain Indarys

As the boy waved back he unwittingly dropped his own letters to the floor. Maria’s eyebrows rose in surprise as her startled companion fumbled to pick up the stationery. From where she stood, she could see they were heart-shaped in honor of the upcoming “holiday” no doubt. Maybe they were for loved ones? She noticed there were quite a few. She also noticed he seemed uneasy, as she awkward tension rising. The Hufflepuff offered him a smile to put him a little more at ease with her, hopefully getting the point across that she meant no harm. Actually even she didn’t know what she meant exactly, waving just seemed like the polite thing to do. When the boy recovered, she saw him a little more clearly. She noted his light blue eyes and that he was smartly dressed. Which was something to remark because most boys their age (or at least she assumed they were the same age) usually didn’t take time to make themselves look presentable (or smell presentable for that matter).

Then, just as awkwardly as he’d dropped the letters he tried to get them into order and told her his name. Sylvain, or Syl as he introduced. It was a name that was not common to her, but she knew sometimes people liked to name their children unique names. But then again, she did not fall under such a category. It was also peculiar to her how he was what he should call her. Frankly, she’d barely heard anyone call her by anything other than her name.

“My name’s Maria. Maria Dee. No nickname so it’s mostly just Maria.” Her voice was calm and casual, subtly trying to mask her own awkwardness. Such air fell on her while he sent off his own letters and before he spoke again. She didn’t know what to say really, he seemed like a nice boy, but a quiet one. It was a pleasant surprise that we wanted to talk, and usually Maria wasn’t one to pass up a nice conversation.

“Oh, I write when I can, my parents love getting letters, and this is my first year here so they asked me to write as much as possible.” She replied. “Were those for Valentine’s?” She asked in return.

Hexcode= #3c78d8

"Maria Dee, I don't think I'll have any trouble remembering that name." Sylvain smiled, if she didn't have a nickname, the witch obviously had never had a use for one. Nicknames being either the shortening of a complicated or long name, or a sign of familiarity between friends. Maria was short enough, so Syl didn't really have to pick her name apart. The awkward air combined with her kind smile from earlier had the opposite effect on him. Increasing the pressure to say or do something interesting, Sylvain blushed a bit.

"Oh, these?" He said as he handled the handcrafted hearts he hoped carried his sentiments appropriately. "They are Valentines. I'm sending one for each of my mothers and this last one is for my sister." Shy as he was, Sylvain reflexively lifted his hand behind his head, dropping the letters again. This time he scrambled to pick them up anxiously, but only after the look of awkward defeat crept across his face. Unembarrassed he rose with the letters in hand and sighed in relief. Syl had had enough of his own awkwardness for now.

Worried he might drop the heartfelt correspondence a third time, Sylvain stopped abruptly to focus fully on ensuring the letters weren't going to come loose from the intrepid messenger he attached them to. A brave squat owl, with a few feathers that indicated its old age. "Sorry about the clumsiness. I'm not an idiot I swear. I'm just awkward and easily distracted." Syl's calm but endearing grimace hopefully added to his casually reserved optimism. He pondered if she meant for him to start talking when she waved in the first place. "Sorry, did you actually want to talk to me or did I speak out of turn?" He looked back to Maria awaiting her response.

@Maria Dee

@Sylvain Indarys

If someone were to ask Maria what she thought of Sylvain (or Syl as he’d introduced), she’d probably answer that she felt like he didn’t feel comfortable in her presence. She’d always been a relatively good judge of character, and the vibe she was getting from the lanky boy was a little off. It wasn’t that he was put off by her presence, no, it just felt he was uncomfortable.

Well, there was also the fact that he’d dropped his letters around her twice. While she wanted to think he was simply in awe of her, it was likely because he was nervous. She threw him a sympathetic smile as he bent down to pick them, wanting to tell him it was okay but also giving him space. If the blush on his face was anything to go by, he also probably didn’t need the extra fuss. But Syl also said something that piqued her interest.

Silence fell on the two as she let him do what he came for, also trying to think of how she was going to ask her question. Would he find her weird for asking? She already felt the aged owl near them judging the sudden awkward silence. Then her companion finally broke it.

“It’s perfectly fine, I didn’t think that at all.” Reassurance was second nature to her, especially with people who felt on edge. Her eyebrows raised just a fraction of an inch when he asked if she’d actually wanted to talk to him. Now that was an odd question. “Oh, yes, I mean – no. Um, I mean did want to say hello, we haven’t really met before.” She cautiously met his eyes, hoping not to scare him away. Suddenly deeming the stone floor something of interest, she lowered her eyes before she asked her question.

“You have a sister?” She asked meekly. Normally someone having a sibling wouldn’t be much of a big deal to her, a minor detail she would brush off. But given The current climate of her life, the thought having another person in her family life felt foreign – and scary. Maybe he knew about siblings? It couldn’t hurt to ask, she decided.

Hexcode= #3c78d8

Receiving reassurance, Sylvain became less awkward and began to smile slightly. "I do have a sister," he said with very little emotion in his voice. "I haven't really gotten to know her yet, but I hope that this letter I wrote teaches me something about her." Maria's eyes having met his for but a second, left Sylvain with the impression that his gaze had scared hers away. In the quiet that came after, he became curious why she asked about his family, and so he tried to revive the conversation.

"I was adopted awhile ago," he said as though it were insignificant. He let his words sink in, before moving on. "But she was adopted right before my letter to Hogwarts came." The boy let himself feel a bit sad for a moment, his eyes a little glossy. "I'm worried she might be lonely, or need help making friends." Tightness gripped at his throat as he spoke about her, though some melancholy still ate at him for whatever reason. "Though I wouldn't actually know. I've been a bit admittedly careless in getting to know her."

"How about you?" Sylvain said aloud. "Any brothers or sisters to speak of?"

@Maria Dee

@Sylvain Indarys

Maria wasn’t exactly sure how to answer the boy’s question, or maybe she just wasn’t used to saying the answer yet. Looking at the boy with wide eyes, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water (as she felt she was) she struggled to form sentences. “Um… well, I haven’t exactly met my sibling yet per se.” There was a short pause as she tried to find the words “Well I sort of met them, but I also sort of haven’t. My mum just told me that she was having a baby soon – in August or May I think.” She felt she was rambling but this was the only way she knew how to say it.

For once, the young girl was at a loss for words, suddenly unsure of how she would continue the conversation. There wasn’t much to talk about, or at least she didn’t think there was – not about the baby anyway. But then again, that’s what it was mostly about now, wasn’t it? Maria felt her heart deflate a little. Everyone just loved to talk about the new addition to the family. This was a feeling that was also new to Maria. The feeling of everything happening around her and her not knowing what to do. She had no idea what a sibling would be like, or what to make of the change that was happening. It didn’t quite settle well with her.

Realizing that she’d fallen into her rabbit hole of despair and that she was in fact having a conversation, she caught herself before changing the subject. “But yes, uh, it’s all quite a lot.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “Sorry, I’ve been easily distracted lately.” She breathed out. “Anyway, ar-are you a first year? I don’t think I’ve seen you around much.”

Hexcode= #507091

The look on Maria's piscine face was more than enough to confirm that the she must have had some complicated feelings for her new sibling. The way her words tumbled out as if she searched for the next one after having just found the previous word caused him to chuckle a little in delight at their shared misery. If only not because he understood the difficulty that came with not knowing what to say, but because the young scholar also knew how difficult it was to gauge how much to say to a stranger. It was clearly a time for listening, and he was all for being an empathetic ear. His chuckle subsiding as quickly as it arose, he nodded as she spoke of the time frame. August to May was a pretty large amount of time to be left without answers. Too much of the future was dedicated to not knowing already.

As Maria's deflation began, a look of concerned worry spread across Syl's wistful visage just as quickly. He thought to say something nice, that her hair was pretty or her smile beautiful, but would wait to see how she recovered before he would speak up. He didn't want to insult or burden her with his feelings while she was already so lost in thought. Surely enough her despair settled in to stay, manifesting with a deep breathe, but she tried to change the topic before he could offer his support. "It's okay, sometimes I need a good distraction too," the lad said calmly as if he'd said this before. "I am a first year, and I've loved every minute of it so far." His smile would reach from corner to corner, spreading a grin like a smear of happiness. Though Maria still seemed lost in her thoughts. Cloudy perhaps.

"Say," Sylvain said gently, prodding her along the path to admitting to her mixed and complicated feelings. "I remember when my sister had only just moved in. My parents forgot all about me in an heartbeat. Or at least, to me it felt like they did." He would try to smile, but go back to being serious. "But not all was lost, now I get to be on my own when I go hiking the trails around home, and I can read a book without anyone interrupting me or asking me to do extra chores." The laziness in his voice died back down as he realized his words might not be as comforting to her as they were to him. "You're not alone."

Mentions @Maria Dee

@Sylvain Indarys

“Well if I’m being honest, the baby’s not even here yet and I already feel that way.”

Thankfully Syl hadn’t seemed entirely put off by her dampened mood. The young Hufflepuff noticed that he humored her change of topic, and she felt reassured in a way. He seemed kind, and she felt that he actually listened to her. So easily he could have just let her words go right through him but the expressions on his face told her that he was sincere. Briefly she wondered if it was his Ravenclaw nature that made him so. Or maybe he was just a good person.

In those moments to her he was like still water, allowing her to look inward and see a reflection of herself. Her level of self-awareness at the time didn’t allow her the luxury of realizing this, but the experience was there regardless. Opening up to other people was still new to her, but with Syl it felt easier to do.

She noticed his segue back to talking about siblings, and she felt that maybe he wanted to relate to her that way. It was daunting how he described being ignored and doing more things on his own. Growing up Maria had heard stories from her friends when they had siblings, about how their parents were often entirely focused on the newest member. “I guess maybe having some time alone won’t be too bad.” Then the furrow of an eyebrow seemed to retract her previous statement. “Babies are so fussy though, they cry a lot and they make messes.” Images of diner patrons who came in with their “bundles of joy” projected into her mind, wails interrupting the peace of their establishment. She could only imagine what it would be like living with one. Well, soon enough she wouldn’t be imagining.

Still, it was nice to meet someone who listened and said encouraging things. “Thank you.” She replied when he reassured her. “I haven’t really talked about much – to anyone really. I guess I was lucky to run into you today.” Her smile was small, but it held all the warmth she could muster.