Weeping with a Willow PV Willow Fin

@Willow Anderson

Ana glanced at the other girl after a moment. This had to be one of the stranger encounters with a stranger she had ever had and yet she didn't really feel as weird or uncomfortable as one would have expected in this situation. She wasn't someone who believed in fate or past lives or anything along those lines, but sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if there were people that you were meant to know. She wasn't fully certain she liked that idea since it went against her entire philosophy that everything in your life was the direct result of choices, but there were times like this when it rather seemed to be the only sane explanation. The other explanation was that Ana was just having a mental breakdown in front of a complete stranger, so maybe the other idea wasn't too bad after all.

She listened intently to what the girl was saying. It was definitely a vastly different take on things than Ana had heard. While her family was very involved in magic culture, they weren't particularly religious one way or another. She nodded as Willow spoke. Fire sounded as good a place as any for a person to begin. As Willow continued to detail all that fire stood for and represented to her, Ana smiled slightly. That definitely sounded like her.

Her companion sat next to her as Ana continued to listen intently. "Do you do that?" Ana asked after a moment in response to Willow's statement about tying yourself to an element. She wondered what element was Willow's. Her overall demeanor was rather sunshiney, even as the two were crying and having a fairly heavy discussion. Was sunshine an element? Ana didn't think so, but if it was, that was definitely something she would associate with Willow.

At Willow's comment about Ana being one of the brightest fires out there, Ana arched an eyebrow slightly. "Thank you, I think," she said, laughing slightly.

Interacting with @Anastasia Beckett

What was a risk in talking about her religion and beliefs in the representation of the elements seemed to pay off. Ana was listening intently, or well, at least she was pretending to. She seemed to prove that she was by asking Willow about her own element. It was an answer that she had only recently come to. Right before coming to Hogwarts actually. It had taken her a long time to find the element that seemed to accept her and really make her feel safe and guided by what it stood for.

With a soft smile and halted tears she spoke, "Earth. The Earth element. Peace, stability, warmth, comfort, strength, health, patience. To be grounded." She paused for a moment as her hand moved to entangle itself in the grass. "It's always there. Beneath our feet. It's what supports our world. Something you can never really get away from. As a kid I've always loved the feeling of gardening, the warm summer dirt on my hands. What it represents are things that I value. Especially comfort, and patience." She giggled, "You know, what I'm trying to do right now. Whenever I'm lost I return back to the Earth, I listen to it and see what path it's telling me to go down. Or, it just keeps me company in my contemplation. I know to some it may seem silly, but it's the greatest comfort that I have. Knowing that there will always be the Earth beneath my feet." Her hand moved back up to rest on her knees that were pulled up to her chest.

She nudged Ana with her shoulder playfully. "It's definitely
a compliment, so you're welcome. Some people are an enigma of an element. Dancing between two or even all four. It's clear to see that you're fire. Honestly, the four elements could probably even be tied to the four houses. I could see... Hm. Gryffindor as fire. Hufflepuff as earth. Ravenclaw as water. Maybe Slytherin as air? But, that's just a hypothesis." She shrugged it off, it wasn't something she gave much though to and some of the house could possibly represent more than one element. "So, what else? What else do you think is all you and nothing but you?"

@Willow Anderson

As Willow described her element, Ana could understand why it fit her. It sounded rather like the stereotypes of a Hufflepuff, and from the few minutes Ana had spent in Willow's presence, it seemed that comfort and warmth described her perfectly. Of course, she could always be an incredibly skilled manipulator trying to get Ana in a vulnerable place and then carry out some evil plan, but Ana seriously doubted it. She had never thought about Earth the way Willow talked about it before, but as the younger girl continued to speak, it made more and more sense. It rather seemed to Ana that Willow could say just about anything and talk about it in a way that made sense. She really ought to consider a career as a professor or a politician something later on.

"That sounds lovely," Ana said quietly. She didn't think she had anything much to come back to if she ever felt lost. Not that she was someone who ever felt lost, but she wondered if maybe that was why. She was ambitious, passionate, and fairly self-motivated for someone so young, but she couldn't help asking herself which came first. If she had felt like she had someone like her parents or something like the earth was for Willow that she could go back to when she felt lost, would she approach things differently?

Willow seemed to have come to a similar line of reasoning to Ana when she compared the houses to the elements. Gryffindor was definitely fire, Ana had yet to meet a housemate who wasn't incredibly passionate about one thing or another. She supposed most people were passionate about something, but Gryffindors were a lot more open about their various passions. She was surprised at Willow's shoulder bump, but not necessarily in a bad way. Her parents weren't exactly the most affectionate people, so it still always came as surprise to her when one of her friends hugged her or made physical contact for no other reason than they were feeling fond of her. She loved it though.

Thinking for a moment, she tried to think of something that was solely hers. While she enjoyed doing ballet and some of the other "ladylike" activities, those were definitely more her parents' than hers, and she was certain that those were what she would have chosen, had she had the choice. "I think my house is too," she said after a moment, furrowing her brow slightly."My entire family's been in Slytherin as long as they can remember, and it was quite the shock when I wasn't. Gryffindor's really become a part of me though."

Interacting with @Anastasia Beckett

The conversation had slowly been guided to something more thought provoking. Willow was starting to feel closer to Ana despite them just having met. There was something about the water, about building a friendship off of deep emotions rather than face value small talk. Even if they didn't end up becoming close friends, they would have this moment together. This moment of trying to figure out who they are in a world of constant influence and pulls in different directions. The Great Lake seemed to breed encounters like this, the water begging people to pour their stories and heartache in to continue to fill it up. It wasn't the first time there were heavy emotions at the lake.

All Willow did in response to Ana was lightly nod. The young muggle witch was incredibly grateful for how she was brought up. There were tangible things and feelings she always returned to when she felt lost. At least, they were tangible to her. Her God and Goddess, the elements. They all would help guide her in different moments of her life. She felt sad for those that didn't also have those grounding points. It seemed scary to her, to live without them. She wouldn't know how. At the beginning of this school year she already felt like she had lost them for a little bit in trying to come to terms with this new witchiness. She was just beginning to return to them, to figure out what her place was between these two worlds, especially when both heavily invalidated the others.

She looked back over at Ana when she started talking about what her house had become to her, making a small hum of recognition of the feeling. "I didn't grow up in a magical family, but without Hufflepuff I think I would be someone else entirely. So, I think I can get how that feels. I didn't even know what a Hufflepuff was when I was sorted. But, these houses really have a way of making you feel like you're in a new type of family, don't they? I'm forever grateful to Mr. Browne, my friends there. They make everything feel less lonely." She sighed happily, Hufflepuff had been an absolute dream of a community to be placed into. She really couldn't ask to be in any other house.

@Willow Anderson

Ana smiled slightly when Willow said she would be a different person without Hufflepuff. She seemed to Ana to be quite possibly the most Hufflepuff person she had ever met. Then again, Ana seemed incredibly Gryffindor to others, which was mostly a result of her time in that house. If she had been placed in Slytherin or Ravenclaw, she likely wouldn't have felt like she was allowed to behave the way she had. Despite the fact that she had rather violently and passionately cursed at the Sorting Hat for placing her in Gryffindor, she had to admit that the stupid thing was right in the long run. Not that she would ever admit it to the lice-ridden scrap of fabric.

"I think our houses determine a lot," Ana mused. "They don't change us, I don't think, but it seems to me that they at least help shape what we grow into." The idea of her house being her family made her throat catch. While there were members of her house that she disliked or didn't know well, for the most part, she vastly preferred her house to her actual family. She felt far more comfortable around her housemates than she ever did around her parents or cousins. That was an odd thought. She had always scoffed at people who had talked about choosing their own family, but that made a lot more sense to her now.

"I suppose they are, aren't they?" Ana finally replied. She wasn't sure exactly how she felt about her parents. They loved her, at least she thought they did, but if it was up to her, she doubted she would have chosen them as parents. The idea of loneliness was something that was new to her. She was an extrovert by nature, but lately, even in rooms full of people, she felt completely alone. Oddly enough, she didn't feel alone at that moment.

Interacting with @Anastasia Beckett

Willow couldn't help but slightly nod along to what Ana was saying. They had a lot of the same feelings, the same worries, and fears that just happened to manifest in different ways. Ana was someone that she somehow had missed out on meeting for so much of the school year, but now that they were talking she felt like there was a space missing in her that was now filled by Ana's presence next to her. Someone that identified with what it was like to feel like a betrayal or disappointment to the family while trying to figure out who they were within these new spaces. "They give us the space we didn't get from our families." Her voice was soft, as if she didn't want to admit it. But that's exactly what is was.

She looked over at Ana with a bright smile. "We're free here now Ana. We can figure out who we are." She stood up, offering her hand out to help Ana out. "Even though you're not a Hufflepuff, I think I can make an exception to including you as part of that family." A cheeky wink to the girl who embodied fire followed. Whether or not she took her hand Willow would dust herself off once Ana joined her in standing. "Oh! I almost forgot." Out of her pocket she pulled a whole pile of friendship bracelets that she meticulously sorted through before pulling out two. "Fire and earth usually go really well together. I really liked this color scheme so I made two... it seems appropriate that maybe we could share them?" It always felt scary to offer to match in bracelets with someone. The bracelet was made of black, red, then brown thread. A combination of the lovely colors of fire and earth.

Bracelet Ref

Reducio

@Willow Anderson

Ana nodded thoughtfully at Willow's words. Before Hogwarts and the supports she got from her house, she hadn't had the space to figure out who she was or what she wanted beyond being the perfect daughter. Before, it hadn't occurred to her to aim for much more. She was ambitious and she had her passions, but before Hogwarts, she hadn't been in a place where she could truly explore them. She generally wasn't the type to open up to strangers, or to be perfectly honest, anyone, but talking things out with Willow had felt amazing. It was as if a weight was lifted and she wasn't so alone anymore. They were completely different people and yet somehow, they had something connecting them. Ana wasn't sure exactly what she believed about fate and the universe, but she rather fancied the idea that there were just some people that one was intended to meet and befriend. That there were people that were connected on a level that nobody could truly comprehend. Maybe it was due to the fact that she didn't ever truly feel like she connected with her parents or any of her pureblood friends. She wasn't sure, but she liked the idea.

She returned the Hufflepuff's bright smile and took her hand. Yet another thing she had learned about herself at school was that her love language was human contact. Her parents were not the most affectionate in general, and she could count on one hand the number of times she could remember being hugged. Ana laughed at the girl's wink but she rather liked the idea. "I'm quite honored," she said brightly. It was hard to imagine that moments ago the air had been full of tears.

Ana's eyebrows rose slightly as Willow suddenly produced a tangle of something very colorful. Ana couldn't tell quite what they were as Willow sorted through them. She concluded they were some sort of bracelet made out of thread. Definitely not the kind of jewelry her parents would have remotely approved of, so of course, Ana was intrigued. Willow's offer caught Ana by surprise. She had shared a stupidly expensive silver charm friendship bracelet with one best friend in childhood that Ana had snapped off her wrist the first time they had fought and a matching set of lockets that had met a similar fate. The idea of Willow so freely offering something that she had made caused Ana's already growing fondness for the girl to skyrocket. "You made those?" she asked, slightly in awe. She could embroider, but beyond that, she wasn't really able to make anything with her own two hands. "Oh, they're lovely. And I would be thrilled to share them."

Interacting with @Anastasia Beckett

Willow felt extremely lucky that Ana hadn't been completely off of the idea of declaring their friendship to the world in the form of matching friendship bracelets. It was something that was so precious to her, especially with how much love and affection that she put into every bracelet that she made. She slipped the bracelet onto Ana's wrist, if allowed, and pulled it closed. She was glad that she had learned how to make the pull closures rather than having to tie them all so should could take them off if she needed to. "This makes it officially official that we're friends now!" Willow's smiled beamed with the energy of the sun itself. The tears had left their own streaks down her cheeks, but they felt out of place now with Willow's sunny disposition.

"I do make them yeah! I always make a few before bed so I never run out. Some people just like to have them because they're pretty, I save the matching ones for the special people in my life." There was something about Ana that Willow wanted to keep around, something that drew her into the lion cub. Perhaps it was like a moth drawn to a flame. "Perhaps we should head back to the castle and gets ourselves cleaned up? We look like a right mess." She couldn't help but giggle at the juxtaposition of new friends with swollen red eyes of wanting to be a part of something that was their own. She offered Ana her arm, so they could walk up together with the strength of two.