Bat-Blind Open

She could understand that Halitreia, she really could. Had she been a student in the young Gryffindor's position, she likely would have done the exact same thing, regardless of whether or not she actually had something to get to. Still, though,  it was a shame to see a person who had offered aid intimidated by others' presence for the same purpose, especially when that person had been the very first to approach her at all. But who was she to force someone else into a distressing social situation until she was comfortable with it? Really, Cy hated the people who had done that to her, and she liked to be anything but hypocritical. She didn't even know how exactly one could do that, ask another to stay after an abrupt self-dismissal, not that she wanted to, of course.

So instead the young woman looked after her fading footsteps - metaphorically, of course, but listening after sounded strange in her own mind - and proffered a small smile. "Good luck on whatever it is you're rushing to do," she called after the young girl, then shifted her attention to the other three children who had chosen to stay with her - two Second Years, one First, two Slytherins, one Hufflepuff - two of them Prefects, even, one of them not. She mused over the considerations as the students voiced their decisions. Elena Jones, was it? Cy briefly remembered grading the First Year's first homework, handing out a rarely-seen Outstanding grade on a Transfiguration homework. A student to keep an eye on.

Her mistake excluding a secondary request for aid after the stairwell was found had been duly rescued from the thorn pit in which it had fallen into. People really were so nice, weren't they? What a shame that some people - some people meaning extremely specific and targeted people in and from her past - couldn't simply learn to be like them. To be like us; the word reverberated in her mind. Like Amadea Campbell, who had figured out the proper etiquette without needing to be informed and decided to stay with the rest of her acquire entourage.

Like Alexx Helm, whose clear French she did not understand behind the fact that it was in fact French that had been vocalized. "Thank you all, Miss - " oh, screw the 'miss' and 'mister' and title and formality nonsense, other people could call her Blind Chicken for all she cared - "Thank you, Elena, Amadea, Alexx. If one of you could - take a free arm, here... usually Ceta or Kimi would be here to do this, but one is busy and the other one is also busy..."

At that point her speech was half directed toward herself, forgetting in her thoughts that none of the students knew yet who Ceta was, or that most students had not stayed around her sister and herself long enough to know Aoi's usual nickname. The extent of her thoughts regarding the students were limited to relief and gratefulness, perhaps a tinge of surprise, as the woman swung her ivory stick out in front of her, moving slowly to avoid accidentally whacking someone in the ankles. That had, of course, been on purpose on more than one occasion, but nobody deserved a trip today but maybe herself for getting lost in the first place. The familiar skid of cane on stone stood stark in comparison to her soft footsteps. "Shall we?"

Lian didn't seem unhappy at the suggestion, which was relieving enough that Elena pulled her hood back to properly see her surroundings. Elena wasn't exactly planning on driving the professor into a wall, that would be unfortunate. Unsurprisingly enough, walls were painful.

"No problem at all Professor." You could almost hear the smile in Elena's voice. It was relieving to not be called by her last name, even if she chose it herself, formality made her uneasy. Mostly because it made her feel like someone was about to tell her off for something, leftover feelings from a youth misspent. Well, maybe misspent wasn't quite the right way to phrase it. Elena would figure out something better later.

Elena wondered for a moment who Kimi and Cera was, but figured if she needed to know then someone would tell her. This would be fun to tell Griffith next time she owled him, maybe he'd even be proud but who could really tell with that particular professor. This left the good question of whether or not she took Lian's arm. Elena decided that the professor was nice enough not to bite her arm off, figuratively of course, "I don't mind taking your arm."

The youngest Slytherin took Lian's arm gently, luckily the professor was only about a foot taller, otherwise this would be a lot more difficult, "Whenever you're ready professor."