It's no big deal PV Cecily Quinn Reopened

There was no incentive for Cecily to write a letter home quite like her mother's owl perched in the owlery awaiting her. Combined with her mum's not-so-subtle hints in her most recent letter that Cecily could do with making contact just a little more often, it was no surprise that the poor girl had suddenly felt a deep desire to compose a lengthy letter to send home. Dearest Mum and Dad, I hope you're doing well, I'm holding up just fine here at Hogwarts and all that.

It was this letter Cecily clutched in her hand as she trudged up the stairs towards the top of the West Tower, wondering, as she did every day of her Hogwarts career, why a castle full of literal wizards couldn't come up with a better idea than stairs. At least, she thought, she wasn't coming from the basement. Being in Ravenclaw, she was already halfway to the Owlery before she even started the trek. Those poor Slytherins.

It as was this thought ensnared her stream of consciousness that Cecily began to pick up the sounds of a hoard of fidgety owls drifting from the Owlery. Finally, she was nearing the top of this godforsaken tower. Really, it was magical how many stairs fit in this castle sorry, i'm writing this right after we finished watching encanto.

The owls were a commotion to be expected, but with each passing stair, a new sound grew in volume, a sound that Cecily was mostly confident was not produced by an owl (although she was by no means an owl expert-- she really had no clue if owls could cry or not. This was a question that would plague many a daydream). She paused outside the door for a moment, wary of this new sound emanating from within the room. It was far from her typical manner to involve herself in the private business of other students. Indeed, in general, she wasn't rather keen on others doing so to her. But then, Cecily had a letter to send, and the universe was hilarious if it thought she was going to trek all the way down the frankly excessive amount of stairs right now only to have to force herself all the way back up later.

Thus, with the thought of avoidable future calf pain fresh in her mind, Cecily set herself to tracking down her family's owl, who was waiting... somewhere in the cavernous room. Keeping her head down, Cecily felt a twinge of guilt in her chest at her avoidance of whomever else was in here, but she was pretty sure she was off the hook as long as the person didn't know it was her. And she probably would've been, if she hadn't made the rookie mistake of actually looking, her curiosity entirely too powerful for her own good. And-- oh. It was a momentary hurricane in her brain as Cecily discovered that, in fact, she knew this person who was sitting, alone, in tears, on a bench in the Owlery, quill and blank parchment abandoned in front of her. Did Cecily have a moral obligation to help this girl, now that she knew her identity? Now that she knew that she was in her own house, that she would have to see her often in the future? Perhaps not, but the growing balloon of guilt moving into her throat popped as she watched her own feet take quiet steps towards Delilah, before her mind had a chance to say otherwise.

She sat on the other end of the bench and took a breath before her mind caught up and remembered it didn't know what to say. The moment stretched, morphed, from a short break into an uncomfortable hesitation. There was no way this was any more comfortable to Delilah than it was to Cecily, and so she broke the silence, incredibly eloquently and in great control of the situation. Her words were followed shortly by one very quiet curse uttered by the incredibly confused girl who was was clearly and ungracefully tumbling head over heels through this conversation already, for the words that flew out of her mouth were, remarkably and unfortunately, "Were you bitten by an owl or something?"

...Well that wasn't how this was supposed to go.

[font=Times new roman]Mentally surrounded by her own fears, she didn't hear the footsteps, she could barely even hear herself, the ringing in her ears louder than anything else going on. It felt like she was suffocating, like she was going to die, like it always did, yet it always scared her, no matter how many times it happened... She could almost see her Granny, sitting in her wheelchair where her armchair used to be in their cottage. Telling her about how useless she was.

But then she heard Cecily, somebody she knew, and had known for a while....ask a mildly dumb question. Normally Delilah would've laughed but she really wasn't in the state of mind. However, her sobs definitely silenced as she found out somebody was there and that she wasn't alone.

Keeping her hands absolutely cemented to her face so Cecily wouldn't be able to see her gross, teary, snotty face. Although it didn't stop the tears from coming and it didn't stop her chest from constricting and burning and suffocating and it certainly didn't stop her mind from running, but she tried to speak anyway.

"Uh..it...it's nothing." her voice cracked and sounded strained, as her throat felt like it was on fire as well. "It's stupid."

How was Delilah even meant to describe this? Oh wow, she got a grade yesterday that was 1 mark away from an E and that made her cry, the idea of sending an owl to the only family she had left had made her cry, her dumb ass brain kept telling her stuff that wasn't true and it made her cry, even though she knew it was irrational, she knew it wasn't true, she couldn't help but believe that it was true, how couldn't she? When it was coming from herself. She felt insane.
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Outfit: This Date: January 12th ---------------------------

@Cecily Quinn ---------------------------

The parchment that used to be a letter to her mother was now crumpled in Cecily's fists, which, as Delilah spoke, Cecily realized were clenched in her lap in shame, embarrassment, discomfort, self-consciousness. Were you bitten by an owl. Or something. Oh Merlin. What was she even doing with her life where she saw a friend in pain and her first instinct was to make a joke, and not even a good joke? It wasn't even that funny! It was just stupid! It would be one thing if it lightened the mood a little bit but her word vomit simply fell flat on the floor. Delilah didn't even laugh, and, honestly, Cecily didn't blame her. Unfunny joke.

The blonde quietly took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders, her fists, trying to appear at ease in a situation she was most definitely unaccustomed to. Exuding tension would do nothing to help ebb Delilah's tears, and maybe a calmer version of Cecily would have something actually useful to say in this godforsaken conversation. Not like... whatever had broken the silence before. Cecily felt the shame boiling inside her for even saying something so unfunny. Her reputation as a comedian would be ruined for life. Well, it would be, if she had one. Which she didn't, but then, she wouldn't anyway-- not after that joke.

"Well, you're right, getting bitten by an owl is pretty stupid," she replied with a small smile. Was it comeback time? She could admit to herself that it wasn't the best joke, but come on, she had to get at least a little credit for twisting her absolutely inane conversation starter into some sort of mostly intentional joke-like response. She still may not have quite hit the mark, but at least she was somewhat starting to bridge the gap between random harbinger of chaos and supportive friend. Ideally, she could now move on to lay the final supports in said idiomatic bridge. "But you know, I've heard sometimes it helps to talk about it," Cecily continued, looking towards Delilah with what she sincerely and deeply hoped was a comforting expression and praying she didn't sound nearly as uncomfortable as she felt. She wasn't big on talking in general, but it sounded like something Amadea would say, and Amadea was a Hufflepuff, so it was probably good. She was doing her best, okay! There really was an effort being made, even if it was a clumsy one.

[font=Times new roman]She felt bad for Cecily, having to listen to her like this, she felt embarrassed, like she wanted to run away, but running away meant going all the way down the steps outside and that sounded a million times worse, her legs were already going to hate her in the morning anyway.

Although, she did have to say, even though she still felt like hell, having any sort of distraction could help, maybe Cecily was a blessing in disguise? Maybe.. It wasn't that she didn't like Cecily, she did, she was really nice, Delilah just kinda wanted to be alone. But, she was already here, and if she was here, she must care...right? It was hard for Del to think about, because even with friends, she still felt alone, she still felt like nobody did actually care. But she couldn't talk about it, because her friends were great, she wouldn't want them to feel bad.

Delilah rubbed her face, trying to wipe off most of the grossness, although the tears were still flowing out, she was slowly feeling better, whilst feeling like she got hit by a wagon. She moved her hands finally and moved them to fiddling with the edge of her jumper.

Looking forward, her vision was completely blurred by the tears still pouring out of her eyes, owls do look funky like that. She turned to Cecily and forced a smile as she commented on the owl question.

It was kind of comforting, although Delilah wasn't too good at talking, she was significantly better at...locking everything up and crying about it when she was alone, that's the right way to do things...right? Whoever said it wasn't?

"Um..I..uh, was going to write a letter." She nodded towards the paper and quill that had been dumped next to her. "To my Granny...she..isn't doing too well..." It was hard to talk in full sentences through all of the..crying. "I normally tell her about my grades and stuff...but..for the first time in 5 years..I almost got an E." It definitely hurt to say it, even though it seems ridiculous to somebody who didn't have perfect grades. Having straight Os had essentially been a part of Delilah's personality since she started in Hogwarts. She worked her ass off for those grades. She tutored younger students, professors were proud of her, her Granny was proud of her, but it was slipping.

"It's really fucking dumb..I still got an O..barely." She attempted a laugh, although with a completely blocked, running nose. It didn't really work.

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Outfit: This Date: January 12th ---------------------------

@Cecily Quinn ---------------------------

There seemed to be one important, glaring difference to be addressed between the two Ravenclaws sitting in the Owlery, although this didn't exactly seem like the greatest time to address the fact that Cecily put borderline negative effort into her grades. It wasn't that she wanted to fail, or that she quite looked forward to the disappointed looks from her mother saying that she wasn't "living up to her potential" or she needed to "take this seriously" or "just one assignment for the love of Merlin"— she just had so many better things to be doing at any given time! Yeah, sure, she could stay inside on a beautiful day writing an essay for whichever professor had decided to torture them that day, but there was no universe in which that was what Cecily would actively choose to do.

It was this attitude that became a very crucial distinction between Cecily and Delilah as the latter explained the situation that Cecily had stumbled upon. "I'm sorry to hear about your Granny," Cecily started once Delilah fell quiet, punctuating with what she thought was a sympathetic pat on the shoulder but was more than likely incredibly awkward and uncoordinated, given the angle of the two sitting side-by-side. Retracting her hand, Cecily glanced around at the owls surrounding them as she grasped for the right words to comfort her friend, but the owls merely glared back at her, providing no help whatsoever. It was probably warranted— Cecily had sort of accused them of attacking a student. Whatever. They were being unsupportive. See if Cecily ever, uh... well, she didn't really have anything to hold over them, but if she did, they would never get it again.

"And hey, you got an O after all! It's nothing to worry about. Besides, I'm sure your reputation can easily withstand one E," Cecily added, the whole speech coming out rather ungracefully. Man, was she unprepared for this scenario. Was this something people practiced for? Maybe she just didn't get out enough. Did everyone run into their friends crying over something they struggled to relate to? It didn't seem like all too common of an occurrence, and yet she was fairly sure she was the absolute worst at this.

She let out a gentle laugh at the pathetic attempt at a comforting pat. Del fully understood that Cecily was trying her best, and she fully appreciated that, she needed to hang out with people more when she wasn't just upset about something dumb. "I know, I know it's stupid, it's just, I wanted to keep everything normal in school since things aren't...normal at home, I don't know."

Delilah couldn't lie and say that her work wasn't being affected by her home life, she was constantly terrified that she was going to get an awful owl or something saying that something horrible had happened to her Granny. "She is really sick, and doesn't want treatment because she is too damn stubborn." It wasn't surprising, a little old Scottish lady who was born in the same house she still lived in, she wanted to die in the house too and she was seemingly taking that more seriously than her health in the moment. Caitlin Stewart was the most stubborn woman Delilah had ever known, but she sort of understood, she felt that if she left the village to get treatment, they would never let her home again.

"I get that my grades are way better than most people, and I'm really proud of that, my Granny has always pushed me to do my best so I literally do. I'm realising more and more as I get older that I'm in this insane position, being in this magical school, and instead of enjoying it or making friends or I don't know, having crushes on boys or even a boyfriend, I spend all of my time in the library, might as well propose to the librarian at this point." She snorted a little, mostly joking towards the end. But it was a good point, she had had a crush on Reid in first-second year but after that, she had never really been romantically involved with anybody and she had just turned 16, that was weird, at least from what Delilah had heard.

She had never even been close enough to think of somebody else in that way.

Outfit: This Date: January 12th ---------------------------

@Cecily Quinn ---------------------------

It goes without saying at this point that Cecily was not a "people-person." In fact, if there was an opposite of a people-person, it would probably be epitomized by the young Ravenclaw. What would that be, like, a rock-person? Rocks were pretty cool sometimes. Plus a lot easier to talk to. Rocks didn't go around not laughing at your unfunny jokes and telling you about their problems. Not that Cecily was complaining about Delilah's predicament-- she just thought it would probably have been a more enjoyable encounter all around if that had never been a factor in the first place. Because of, you know, how Cecily is butchering this whole thing and probably seems like a pretty bad person to have as a friend right now.

Cecily listened to Delilah talk, letting the other girl get all of her thoughts out before Cecily had to respond with something ideally considerate and helpful. She considered for a moment that if she just focused on a different part of the conversation enough, she could probably kind-of-sort-of skirt around the whole sick family member portion of the conversation that she seriously didn't know what to do with. "Sorry" didn't sound adequate, but it would probably be better than nothing. Someone needed to teach this girl how to do the whole "say compassionate things that validate the other person's feelings" thing, because clearly after sixteen years on God's green Earth she had not learned it on her own. And yet, some little nagging voice in the back of her mind that seemed to have emerged now that she was over the initial what the hell moment of ~were you bitten by an owl or something??~ revealed the notion that she may have picked up just a bit more than her conscious mind let her divulge.

"That sounds really unpleasant," Cecily began. The words sounded vague and detached out of her mouth. She hoped that they at least conveyed her intentions: she was trying. She wasn't very good, but she wanted to be. "I've never had a boyfriend either. So I think that's okay." Here she tried to smile reassuringly. Whether it was at all effective, Cecily wasn't sure. Then she paused for a moment, thinking. "Plus, marrying the librarian probably wouldn't be too bad. You probably wouldn't have to pay for overdue books. That's not a bad deal." Cecily's writer couldn't for the life of her remember who the librarian was at this point in time, but she was sure it wasn't anyone who would be terrible to hypothetically spend the rest of one's life with.

Delilah really did appreciate Cecilys attempts to cheer her up. She knew that if the tables were turned she wouldn't be able to do it very well either, she always tried to be compassionate but Dels efforts often were attributed with failure when it came to social spheres, there was a reason she was in Ravenclaw.

"Very true." She chuckled a little at the comment about never having to pay for overdue books. "I don't know, honestly it just feels like my academic success has led to social failure, and if I try to succeed in my social life, it flip flops the other way and my grades don't stay up as much. I wish there was a way to win at both." She knew this was a selfish thought, she didn't get to have her cake and eat it too. She just didn't want the repercussions of focusing on one or the other.

There was something about the background noise of the owls hooting and the wind whistling between the old castle rocks that was soothing, she would contemplate studying up here if she wasn't so paranoid that she would be handing in her History of Magic homework with a side of owl poop. Delilah rubbed her eyes with the back of her sleeve again, she could imagine her face was all shades of pink and red at this point, which she was growing more conscious of.

"Anyway..." She tried to change the subject, "How about that um... weather, huh?" In true British fashion.

Outfit: This Date: January 12th ---------------------------

@Cecily Quinn ---------------------------