A Retreat to the Skies Closed

Teagan stared back at the girl, the tears starting to dry up. She had never met this girl before tonight, and yet they had cried together like old friends. How absurd human nature really was, yet how beautiful at the same time. They had to stay strong.

"I promise." Teagan told the girl, eyes shining. "I promise I will stay strong, and I promise that I will not forget anything." It felt like a release. She would keep her head, about her mother, about being overwhelmed, about sharing her heart with someone she'd never met. It was easier to stay strong when she realized others had it so much worse.

"But you must promise me," she told her, staring her straight in those pale eyes. "That you won't give in. Because I can't stay strong by myself." How great a friend such as this would be. She could not stay strong; not on her own. She could try, but the sadness would always come back, the bottle would always spill back over.

And Teagan was almost sure this girl felt the same way. She knew that this new comradeship wasn't only to have a new friend. It was a sure way of filling in holes that their loved ones had left them with. Their bottles of sadness and trapped emotion could spill into each other, because only the other understood grief in the same way.

Teagan stared back at Mia, and her tears started to dry up. They had never met before, but they were already comforting each other, leaning on them. Mia wasn't sure how to feel about this.

"I promise. I promise I will stay strong, and I promise that I will not forget anything."

The girl looked at her with a somber expression and Mia drew back, placing a hand on her shoulder. It wasn't that she was uncomfortable with her, in fact Mia was starting to be more comfortable with this girl than she was with almost anyone else at Hogwarts. It was because Mia was starting to dry sob, her shoulders going up and down. She couldn't bear for anyone else to see that.

She stopped her display of emotion almost instantly, and choked back a sob. She really was breaking, wasn't she. How could she be so weak? How could she cry in front of anyone but Scott? She clamped a hand on her leg, squeezing to stop from her crying. She didn't want to dissolve again.

Mia opened her mouth, about to promise that she would stay strong, and would not forget anything. Bust she knew that she wouldn't. The girl didn't know that though. Placing her hand out on the ground, she curled it into a fist.

"I will not forget. I will stay strong. I promise this."

Mia choked back a sob and looked up at the sky, amazed by its brightness. It wasn't that long ago that she was back at home, with Rachel, looking up at the exact same thing.

Teagan heard the girl's promise, and breathed a sigh of relief. She looked nervous to be crying on front of anyone, and Teagan knew how she felt. Teagan realized she probably wouldn't be seeing her cry anytime soon; maybe never again. She moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with her, watching the starts twinkle above them.

The girl cried without tears, shaking with the weight of her terrible past. Teagan hoped she hadn't broken her-sometimes crying was all it took to send someone over the the edge-but she didn't think that was what this crying was signifying. This girl had a bottle, just like Teagan had one, just like everyone else. Teagan figured her bottle was more full than most.

Teagan gave a soft laugh as she remembered something. "I'm afraid I've been pouring my guts out on the floor in front of you, and I don't even know your name."

But what was a name, to a friend that could last a lifetime? Surely quite trivial to her.

As she examined the girl's face, attempting to place her family history, she noticed her eyes again. So pretty and blue; a Veela, as she'd assumed before. The skin also helped give it away, shimmering in the moonlight. But the nose... the nose threw her off. Whose nose was that? The way it rose to prominence, long and angled downward.

An Alexander. Of course she was an Alexander. An Alexander, a Slytherin, and probably part Veela. But which Alexander? From what she'd read, Thomas Alexander didn't have any children, just a ton of money and appreciation for the higher things in life. She had to be honest, though, she didn't see his name much. She knew only that he was a lawyer, or something else just as important, and had married a no-name. Would Mr. Alexander and her own father have gotten along?

That didn't matter right now, though. Family ties could come into play later. Maybe she was a different Alexander: someone who looked so much like Thomas, yet a distant cousin. She'd figure out the mystery someday.

Sorry if my Encyclopedia was misleading, but I actually didn't get approved as half-veela.


"I'm afraid I've been pouring my guts out on the floor in front of you, and I don't even know your name."

The girl laughed slightly and Mia furrowed her brow. had she really not told the girl her name? She was sure that she had, but maybe the girl had forgotten. Or something else along that lines. Anyway, Mia thought that she should introduce herself. It was only proper, after all.

So she smiled kindly at the girl she had poured her heart out too, and sat up straight. She opened her mouth, ready to talk, but then faltered. Would the girl see her differently if she admitted that she was an Alexander? One of the sacred 28 families? She was a Rivera, so Mia most likely would run into her, but still. Couldn't she enjoy the blanket of secrecy-most importantly comfort-around her? So Mia decided just to tell the girl her first name. It wasn't lying, no, and she was pretty sure that she had already introduced herself.

"Mia."

Mia brushed her hair out of her face and looked at the girl. She wondered if she had to ask the same question-she knew who the girl was, after all. But it was being polite.

"And you? What's your name?"